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SKETCHES 

i:tT t:e3:e: histoid "^ 



Underground Railroad 



COMPRISING MANT 



THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE ESCAPE 

OP FUGITIVES FROM SLAVERY, AND THE PERILS 
OF THOSE WHO AIDED THEM. 



BY 

EBER M. PETTIT, 

Vou MANY YEARS A CONDUCTOR ON THE 

U. G. R. R. LINE FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM. 



U^^ 



WITH INTRODUCTION BY W. McKINSTRY. 



Fredonia, N. Y. : f Jio...hlR.^JS- 

W. McKINSTRY & SON. \, X 1879'. .^Jj 

1879. V 0'^w.-ns<»V 

T 



^p.<' 



COPYBIGHT, 1879, 
BY 

Eber M. Pettit. 



4 



TO 

FREDERICK DOUG-LASS, 

AN EXEMPLAR OF THE CAPABILITIES OF 

HIS RACE, 

AS AN 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS GREAT SERVICE 

in behalf of an 

Afflicted and Despised People, 

and as a sincere friend of 

THE MARTYRED PRESIDENT, 

this volume is 

"Respectfully Dedicated. 

Eber M. Pettit. 
Frbdonia, ]C. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction ^ 

Preface - 13 

CHAPTER I. 

The Slave Coffle at Wheeling, Va.— The Kind Hearted Landlord— The 
Good Samaritan — The Hunters Misled — The Escape 17 

CHAPTER n. 

Dan's Trip from Dmikirk— Sees his Master in the Car — R. R. Conductor's 
Advice — Friends in Need— Safe arrival in Canada. 24 

CHAPTER m. 

Tom Stowe— His Value to his Master— His Boy Sold and his Wife Dies- 
He Finds his Boy — His Escape to Pittsburg, and thence to Canada. 27 

CHAPTER IV. 
Origin of the U. G. ,R. R. — Jo Norton --- -- 34 

CHAPTER V. 

Jo Norton, continued— Making their way from Washington to Albany- 
Jo goes to School— Lectures to buy his Wife and Child— Succeeds— 
The Happy Meeting 'H 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Jo Norton, continued — His Quickness at Repartee — Lectures in Ville- 
nova— Settles in Syracuse— Enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law — The 
"Shadrach" Case in Boston — Effect on Syracuse and the Empii-e 
State. - - - 4t> 

CHAPTER VIL 

The " Jerry Rescue " — Jo Norton Heads the Party that Rescues Jeny — 
Exciting Times in Syracuse — Tiie Fugitive Slave Law in Contempt — 
Jo goes to Canada 5u 

CHAPTER VIII. 
G-eorge and Clara — They i-each Oberlin— Hotly Pursued — Take Passage 
with Capt. Titus — Recognized by th^ii' Owner — Capt. Titus' Experi- 
ence — An Incident of the Burning of the Erie — Escape of the Fugi- 
tives - - 60 

CHAPTER IX. 

An Old-fashioned Democrat — The U. G. R. R. Business a means of 
PoUtical Conversion (J3 

CHAPTER X. 

Two Democratic neighbors vote for James K. Polk and have a visit the 
evening after election — They become U. G. R. R. agents — The 
escape of Robert _ _ oy 

CHAPTER XI. 

True Dfemocrats versus Copperheads — The escape of Static and Lila— 
From Washington, D. C, to Warsaw, N. Y., in a box — Pursuers 
foiled - 74 

CHAPTER XII. 
Margaret— Born on a slave ship^Childhood in a kind family— Another 
master, wicked, cruel, and a coward— Her husband sold and she 
escapes— Hunted with blood-hounds and rescued by a mastiff — Ar- 
rives in New York — Her son, Samuel R. Ward yo 



COXTENTS. Vn 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Escape of Jim and his Companions — Night Meetings among the 
Slaves — An Angry Southerner in Fredonia Sit 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Blacksmith Hemy — Works his way from New Orleans to Baltimore — 
Writes his own Pass and gets on to Springville, N. Y. — Falls into 
Good Hands and gets Safely Through— Some Account of his Early 
Life — A Christian Lady in Kentucky — A Preacher in a Tight Place . St7 

CHAPTER XV. 

Joe and Rosa— Sold — The Escape — They reach the Southern Terminus of 
the U. G. R. R. — Danger Signals — The Quaker Friend — The Master on 
the track — Outwitted by the Quaker — Safe in Wilberforce Colony. . . lOH 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Cassey Escapes from Baltimore — Returns for her Child — Escapes again 
in Sailor Costume — Eludes the Slave Catcher, Cathcart— Goes to 
Canada— Returns to Niagara Falls, N. Y. — The Slave Catcher finds 
her — A Long Ride and how it came out — An Intelligent Irishman— 
What Margaret did for him li;i 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Tom Hawkins — Negroes and Poor Whites in Kentucky — Tom runs his 
own train — Sells his shirt to pay his fare at the Ferry — Is born into 
God's free air almost as naked as he was born into Slavery— His 
Modesty, Industry, Intelligence and Pi'osperity 122 

CHAPTER XVIIL 

William and Margaret— Seventy Years Old and Determined to be Free 
— Half Brother to a U. S, Senator — Argument in a R. R. car. 13('i 

CHAPTER XIX. 

An old time Missionary at the South — Speaks his Mind but Loses his 
Shirts — The Slaveholder's Penitent Letter lo"! 



Viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Rev. J. W. Loguen— His Trial and Release— Lectures in Chautauqua 
County — Unexpected Con'oboration 148 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Southern U. G. R. R.— It's use during the war— A Union Prisoner's 
Experience Escaping from Andersonville 14'^ 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Frightened Moses— Expecting to be Killed and Eaten by Abolitionists... 154 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Oneda Lackow's Flight from Alabama — Capture and Escape — The 
Faithful Dog— The Kind-hearted Jailer's Wife— Graduates from a 
Semmary and goes to England l^'' 

Appendix _ 160 



INTRODUCTORY. 

Slavery in the United States after tlie Fugitive Slave law was enacted, 
assumed its most hideous aspect. Wlien in colonial times it pervaded more or 
less all the colonies, it was not regarded as a special source of profit, and the 
value was but little more than nominal. After the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, State after State provided for its abolition till it was finally limited to the 
States south of ilason & Dixon's line and the Ohio river. The invention of 
the cotton gin and the profitableness of the culture of cane and cotton en- 
hanced the value of slave prox^erty, and so far increased the demand for this 
kind of labor that the raising of slaves for the Southern market became a 
large source of income to the northern Slave States. In process of time they 
were held as mere chattels, without legal rights, and could not make bargains, 
marriage contracts, or perform any act whatever in which the law granted 
them any protection. In the eye of the law they were as much property as 
horses and cattle. This legal ownei'ship enabled the masters to supply the 
slave auctions with human chattels, and caused great anguish to the poor 
wretches who were subject to sale and separation of kindi-ed with no legal re- 
dress against any cruelty which might be inflicted. In the District of Colum- 
bia was a large slave mart, but it was so repugnant to Northern sentiments 
that finally the traffic was abolished there, but wa-s continued at Alexandria, 
which was receded to Vrrginia. 

At an early date the moral sense of many of the people of the North was 
aroused to the enormity of the crime of slaveiy and measures were taken foi- 
its abolition. The fir.st slaves brought to this country were sold from a Dutch 
vessel at Jamestown, Va., in 1619. There were twenty of them. From that 
time up to 1776 three hundred thousand were imported. In the Continental 
Congress it was resolved that no more slaves should be brought to this country, 
but on the adoption of the Constitution, Congress was prohibited from abol- 
ishing the slave trade till 1808. In the meantime Anti-Slavery Societies were 
formed in several States, and Benj. Franklin was Pi-esident of such an organ- 
ization. The Quakers persistently i^rotested against human bondage, and 



X INTRODUCTORY, 

petitioned the Convention to provide in the Constitution for its abolition. It 
was suiDposed at that time that human bondage would cease in a few years. 
In this philanthropists were disappointed, as its rapid growth will show . In 
1790 as seen by the census the slaves numbered 697,897, which was more than 
double the number at the commencement of the Revolutionary war. 

In 1800 there were 893,000. In 1840 there were 2,487,455. 

" 1810 " " 1,191,364. " 1850 " " 3,304,313. 

" 1820 " " 1,.538,038. " 1860 " " 3,9.52,608. 

" 1830 " " 2,009,043. 

In 1861 the war commenced between the Northern and Southern States, 
which resulted in the abrogation of all property title to more than four mil- 
lions of human beings in the United States and territories 

As one after another the Northern States abolished slavery, they became . 
an asylum for fugitives from the institution in the Southern States. On the 
4th of July, 1827, all slaves held in the State of New York were set at liberty 
by an act passed in 1817. Thereafter all the States bordering on the lakes 
and rivers between the United States and Canada were free States. In all 
these States were found friends of the oppressed race, who desii'ed their eman- 
cipation, and the fugitives from slavery foimd assistance and protection 
among these philanthi-opists, a large number of whom were Quakers who 
had always earnestly protested against human bondage. Still the refugees 
from slavery wei-e not safe in the free States. The Constitution provided foi- 
their suiTendei', and the U. S. laws designated the manner of proceedure. 
Rewards were offered for their return, and many people were found who for 
the pecuniai'y inducements were willing to particiiDate in this business. The 
fugitives were not secure till they reached the soil of Canada. An effort was 
made for a treaty with Great Biitain to secui'e their return from Canada, 
but without success. 

After the passage of the fugitive slave law, the danger of captm-e was en- 
hanced and man}' left the free States for greater safety who had long been 
residents in them. 

Notwithstanding the rewards and x^enalties of the law, fugitives still con- 
tinued to escape, and endured untold suffering in pursuing their trackless 
course, often through an unbroken wilderness, guided by the north star to the 
land of freedom beyond the dominion of the stars and stripes. 

Foi- some forty years these pilgrims to the land of liberty made their way 
through the Northern States and across the border. Scattered through the 
country were humanitai'ian people who beUeved in the " higher law," and 



INTKODUCTORY. XI 

that the complexion of the individual should not exclude him from the en- 
joyment of his " inalienable rights." These people protected the fleeing fug- 
itive, secreted him from his pursuers, and conducted him from station to 
station tUl he was landed in Canada. The secrecy with which they managed 
the matter and the certainty of the delivery of the passengers on their line, 
gave by common consent the name of the Underground Railroad. The 
number of those who escaped is a wonder, in view of the difliciilties encount- 
ered. It is estimated by a prominent refugee from Kentucky, who made hi.s 
escape in 1836, that fully thirty-five tlwusand fugitives have reached Canada 
from the Slave States. As would be expected, only the shi-ewdest, able 
bodied and most enterprising would succeed. They secured land in the home 
of their adoption, became successful farmers and mechanics, and an import- 
ant acquisition to the Queen's dominions. 

The success of the Underground Railroad in transporting colored men to 
Canada presents a strilcing contrast with that of the African colonization 
scheme. The Colonization Society was organized in 1S16— many yeai's befoi-e 
the Undergi'ound Railroad was instituted. From the time of that organiza- 
tion to 1857, a period of forty yeai'S, there were 9,502 emigrants sent to Afi'ica, 
of whom 3,G7(i were bom free, 326 purchased their own liberty and 5,.5U() were 
emancipated on condition of being sent to Africa. It will thus be seen that 
nearly four times as many emigrated to Canada as to Liberia, and in develop- 
ing the soil, building churches, schoolhouses, manufacturing establishments, 
and the surroundings of comfortable homes, and the faciUties for the enjoy- 
ment of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the Wilbgrforce Colony 
■will compare favorably with Liberia and Sierra Leone, though it is not doubt- 
ed that African colonization has exerted a beneficial iafluence on the dark 
shores of the African continent. The Underground Railroad, it will be seen 
has done much the greatest work in behalf of human liberty. 

The conductors on this route were some of the noblest, self sacrificing men 
the world ever saw. No civil penalties dismayed them. They boldly pro- 
claimed by deeds of moral heroism and self-sacrifice their faith in the higher 
law, before which human statutes were impotent when human libeity was at 
stake. 

The remarkable exodus now in progress, which thi-eatens to deprive the 
cotton States of a considerable portion of their laboring population, notwith- 
standing the suft'erings of the refugees, presents a striking contrast with that 
imder the management of the Underground Raih-oad. In the present case 
the philanthropist can exercise his charity toward the suffering, and no law 



xii ■ INTRODUCTORY. 

can interfere with its penalties, while then, as w-ill be seen by the sketches 
herewith presented, all acts of kindness to the fleeing fugitive, exposed those 
who aided them to the penalties of the tugitive slave law. The " higher law" 
has become practically national in its application to the colored people of the 
country. 

The writer of the follo\ving sketches is well known throughout the region 
where the fugitives found their way to the Lakes, and was one of the most 
self-sacrificing and efficient of the conductors of the U. G. R. R. He is an 
earnest laborer for Him who " came to preach deliverance to the captive and 
to set at Uberty those who are in bonds." In every good work for the benefit 
of humanity he has always borne a part when opportunity has offered. 

The thrilling adventures narrrated mostly occurred on his portion of the 
route, and within his personal knowledge. Many of the active participants in 
the service of the great Une of travel from Slavery to Fi-eedom, have ah-eady 
passed away. The author of these sketches is now in his 78th year, and can 
look back on a life of usefulness and good will to men far brighter than falls 
to the usual lot of mankind. The sketches were fii-st published in serial 
numbei-s at the solicitation of the Editors of the Fredonia Censor, with a 
view to the perpetuation of the personal recollections of a period in our history 
which, thanks to the Pi-oclamation of our martyred Pi-esident, can never in 
the history of this countr}^ be repeated. Knov.ing so well the author, and the 
entire reliability of the narratives, and the deep interest which was taken in 
them when they were firet given to the public, we have ventured to give them 
the permanent form in which they are now presented to the reader. They 
constitute an incomplete, but interesting record of " the times which tried 
men's souls." It was some ten years ago that these sketches were written. 
With othei-s they ai-e now presented to the public in a more enduring form, 
with th« hope that the respect for the memory of those engaged in the self 
sacrificing work of befriending fugitives from slavery, may be more highly 
cherished. Surely when they shall " rest from their labors," and " their works 
shall follow them," they will be welcomed by Him who said, "Inasmuch as 
ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, je have done it unto me." 

W. McK. 
Fredonia, Maj", IST'J. 



PREFACE. 

In 1619 slaves were introduced into the colony of Vir- 
ginia—they were Africans of pure bloody et-Ma ck. thicl^ 
i ip^J|aiyioseS;_flUj,t_feeLajajd..c^^ The Virgin- 

ians would have scorned the idea of enslaving a white 
man or woman, but the time came when the bluest blood 
of Virginia betrayed itself in the blush on the cheek of 
beautiful women standing on the auction block in Rich- 
mond, Charleston and New Orleans. Beauty of face and 
of form had a market value ; a beautiful woman would 
sell for the price of ten able bodied men, and even Chris- 
tianity was an article of commerce. A man stands upon 
the block, dignified in manner, serious countenance, and 
silent. '' Now, gentlemen and ladies," says the auctioneer, 
" I offer you a first class servant. He is honest and faith- 
ful, and moreover he is a Christian; no sham I tell you, 
but a genuine, conscientious Christian man. He would 
di'e rather than commit a wrong act or betray his master. 
How much do you offer for a servant that you can depend 
on every time ?" 

Good men in the Slave States were silent, haying no 
means of redress ; the -laws and public opinion were on 
the side of the slave holder. The free States remonstrat- 
ed and petitioned Congress to adopt measures for eman- 
cipation. The South assumed the political doctrine of 



xiv PREFACE. 

State rights, which means that State kivvs are paramount 
to U. S. laws. Bid 'when the northern States enacted laivs to 
protect their own citizens against Jcidnappers, it was found that 
" State Rights'' applied only to slo.ve States. As the free States 
persisted in protecting their citizens th-e slave States de- 
manded the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, which 
was passed in 1850, establishing commissions and courts 
unknown to the Constitution, and was undoubtedly the 
most barbarous law enacted by any civilized nation in 
the 19th century. 

The most simple act of charity to a fugitive must be 
kept a profound secret or a felon's cell was the penalty. 
The result was a spontaneous combination of multitudes 
of men and women, extending from Maine to Kansas, 
with many a station south of Mason & Dixon's line, 
which on account of its harmony of action, rapid transit 
and secret operation, came to be known as the " Under- 
ground Rail Road." 

The Underground R. R., extending from the interior 
of the slave States to Canada, and to liberty, wherever 
human liberty could be found, had four main lines across 
the State of New York, and scores of laterals. It has 
finished its mission, closed its operations, settled its ac- 
counts and divided the proceeds among the passengers. 
The immense wealth thus accumvdated was invested in 
the purchase of large tracts of land in Canada, clearing 
up, stocking and cultivating farms, building dwellings, 
Imrns, churches and school houses, mills and factories. 
No institution has ever existed in this country, whose. 



PREFACE. XV 



business was transacted with more perfect fidelity, more 
profound secrecy, more harmony in the working of its 
complicated machinery and yet with such tremendous 
results. 

— rt had, like all other rail roads, its offices and stations,- 
engineers and conductors, ticket agents and train dis- 
patchers, hotels and eating houses. The fugitive slave 
law passed by Congress in 1850, imposed a penalty of 
§1,000 fine and imprisonment for selling or giving a 
meal of victuals to one of the passengers on this road, 
or for helping them on their way. /Disregarding these 
penalties, the eating houses were oipen day and night, 
and well supplied with the best food the country afforded. 

The business was conducted in silence and harmony, 
consequently but few of the employees suffered the afore- 
said penalties ; yet some of the noblest and purest men 
tliat ever sutfered as martyrs were victims of that horrid 
fugitive slave law. Rev. John Rankin, of Ohio, was 
fined 11,000 and imprisonment. Wm. L. Chaplin, Esq., 
of Mass., was imprisoned in Virginia, released on nine- 
teen thousand dollars bail, which was paid by his friends 
to save his life, and Rev. C. T. Torry died in a Virginia 
prison. 

The managers availed themselves of all manner of 
facilities for traveling ; rail roads and steam boats, canal 
boats and ferry boats, stage coaches, gentlemen's car- 
riages and lumber wagons were pressed into active 
duty when needed. The large rivers were the chief ob 
stacles in their wav when not bridged with ice. In 1858 



XVI PREFACE. 

it was asserted that the slave holders had employed 
Douglass, (not Fred,) to advocate in Congress a bill to 
abolish the North Star and make it a penal offence for 
the Ohio river to freeze over. I do not think Douglass 
ever introduced such a bill, but such a proposition was 
no more absurd than the indirect attempt to abolish 
Christianity, bj^ enacting the Fugitive Slave Law. 

The writer of these brief sketches of U. G. R. K. 
histor}^ kept a station and eating house at one of the 
crossings of the Cattaraugus river, in Cattaraugus Co., N. 
Y., though but few of his nearest neighbors knew until 
the rebellion ended, its usefulness. Being at the junction 
of six laterals with the main line running through Buf- 
falo, I heard many thrilling accounts from escaping 
fugitives while they were in my charge, and experienced 
some exciting times when the slave hounds were almost 
within striking distance. I have given comparatively 
few of the many incidents which came under my obser- 
vation, and these only in outline, yet as giving some con- 
ception of the workings of an institution importantly 
pertaining to a past epoch in our history, the character 
of which even now this generation can scarcely realize, 1 
am persuaded that these chapters may have both value 
and interest, and they are therefore respectfully submit- 
ted in this form to the public. E. M. Pettit. 

Fredonia, N. Y., May, 187i). 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SLAVE COFFLE AT WHEELING, VA. THE KIND- 
HEARTED LANDLORD THE GOOD SAMARITAN THE 

HUNTERS MISLED THE ESCAPE. 

Something over twenty years ago, I stopped a few days 
at the City Hotel in Wheeling, Va. The hotel was 
located on the southern border of the city, adjoining a 
small plantation in the rear of the garden. The land- 
lord was a plea.sant, social gentleman, well informed on 
all topics of interest, and preferred hiring his help rather 
than be the owner of a human being. Having learned 
this, I was less guarded in talking about their institu- 
tions than I should otherwise have been. Among the 
guests at the hotel was a family of Quakers on their way 
from Eastern Virginia to Indiana. One of the young 
men told me that he had never been outside of the State 
of Virginia ; had long been disgusted with the wicked- 
ness and cruelty of slavery which he could not avoid 
seeing and hearing every day. The horrors of tlie every- 
day life on the plantations as described by him exceeded 
everything related in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and he had 
sold out, and the family were going to settle in a free 
State. 

I was sitting on the piazza talking with this man, 
when a coffle < f slaves came in front of the house and 
were hustled along by the driver ; the men were fine 
looking fellows, though they wei-e bare-footed, and most 
of them bare-headed ; they were chained by the right 
3 



18 SKETCHES OF TKK 

wrist to a long bar of iron. The women were not 
fettered, some of tliem carried infants in their arms, and 
some children rode on the wagon with the corn on 
which they all were fed. They soon started toward 
a steamboat lying at the levee, and were shipped for the 
New Orleans market. This was the first drove of slaves 
I had ever seen, and being a little excited, I made a 
remark to the Quaker which the landlord overheard, and 
touching my shoulder, he beckoned me to go with him. 
We went aside, and he said to me, " You are going to 
Kentucky, and I advise j'ou to beware how you speak of 
these things. There are men in this place, who, had 
they heard that remark, would have had you in jail in a 
hurry. I hope you will heed my advice." 

An incident that occurred on the U. G. R. E., not 
many months after, brought vividly to my remembrance 
the kind-hearted, unselfish landlord of the City Hotel in 
Wheeling. It was on a bitter cold day in December that 
a sleigh was driven into Fredonia, iST. Y. ; the driver had 
made some inquiries, (for this was his first trip as con- 
ductor,) and turned his team down the creek in search of 
a depot. It was late in the evening, and the road was 
badly drifted, but the train went through and made con- 
nection as usual. The passenger came out from under 
the driver's seat, shook off the blankets and Buffalo 
robes that had hid him and kept him warm. Pie was 
not inclined to talk at first, but a hearty welcome, a 
warm supper, and the assurance that he was safe from 
his pursuers, induced him to give a brief account of his 
adventures. He said : 

" I have ahv^ays lived in Loudoun County, Virginia. 
My mother was the cook, and I worked about the house, 
and sometimes traveled with master, — went to Washing- 
ton, Baltimore, Cumberland, and once to Wheeling, on 



UNDERGROrXD EAILEOAD. 19 

horseback. One day, when mother gave me my dinner, 
she said, ' Charley, all my children gone but you, and 
Massa's done gone and sold you, and I'll never see you 
'gin.' ' Guess not, mother, he promised you to keep me 
always ;.' but she said, 'I heard him tell the trader he'll 
send you to town Monday morning, and he must put you 
in jail.' Well, I was afraid to tell mother what I would 
do, because maybe somebody would hear, so I couldn't 
say good-bye to my poor old mother, but next morning 
master's best horse and I were 50 miles away towards 
Wheeling. Hid in the woods all day, at night left the 
horse loose in the woods and went on as well as I could. 
Did not go through the towns, went round, then found 
the road and went on. Found corn in the fields, and 
some apples, and got to Wheeling in aljout 14 or 15 days, 
Was almost starved, went into the City Hotel before day- 
light. The landlord was up, and I asked him for some 
bread. He looked at me and said, 'You are a runaway.' 
I began to say ' no,' but he said, ' Go with me! ' We went 
to the barn, and he said, ' Do you know whose horse that 
is ? ' Then I owned up, and begged him to let me go 
and not tell master. He then read to me an advertise- 
ment, offering S500 reward for me. Then I thought, 
it's no use trying — must go back, sold! sold! Oh! I 
wanted to die ; but the man said, ' See here! you see that 
house beyond that lot ? ' ' Yes, master,' I said. ' You 
go there and tell them I said they must take care of you, 
and give you something to eat.' Then he looked so 
happy, and I wanted to lie down and kiss his feet ; but 
it was getting light. 'Hurry,' said he, "go right in the 
back door.' When I got in I could see nobody but a sick 
woman on a bed. I told what the man said, and soon I 
heard horses running up the road, and looking out, saw 
my master and another man coming. I began to cry, 



20 SKETCHES OF THE 

but she told me to get under the bed and lie still, and 
when I had done so she took up her baby, and got it to 
screaming with all its might. Soon master opened the 
door and looked in, and asked if a negro boy had come 
in there. The baby cried and she pretended to try to stop 
it, and asked liim what he wanted. He repeated the 
question. 8he tried to hush the baby, and finally said, 
' Husband is at the barn ; he can tell you if he has been 
here.' They went to the barn, and soon I heard them 
running their horses up the road. Then she said to me, 
' Go up the ladder and lie down on the floor,' which I 
did, and when the man came in with his milk pail, he 
asked his wife who that man was, inquiring about aboy ? 
She said, 'I don't know, but I know where the boy is.' 
' Where is he ? ' ' He went up the ladder, and you must 
carry him something to eat, poor fellow, he's starved.' 
As soon as he could, he came to me with enough to eat, 
and then fixed a place for me to lie down, and said, ' You 
are tired and sleepy. Now go to sleep, and if you wake, 
don't stir nor make a noise until I come.' Having slept 
little since I started, I slept all day ; it was dark when he 
roused me up and told me to go down. I found a good 
supper ready, and while I was eating the man and his 
wife said not a word. When I had done he said, ' Come 
out here.' Following him, I saw at the door three 
horses ; there was a man on one of them ; I was told to 
mount one, and he mounted the other. I was between 
them. Not a word was spoken, and passing round the 
edge of the town near the hill, we came to the road lead- 
ing north near the bluff above the river. I didn't know 
what it all meant, but supposed they w^ere going to give 
me up, and claim the $500. We rode three miles maybe, 
hitched the horses in some bushes, and went down the 
steep bluff to the Ohio River. He pulled a stake and 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 21 

threw it into a boat that was tied to it, and motioned me 
to get in. We soon got across the river, then taking a 
little bundle, he directed me to go forward, and we were 
soon on a road. He then put two loaves of bread in my 
hand, and said to me, ' This is a free State, and there is 
the north star,' pointing to it ; ' God bless you,' and I 
soon heard the splash of his pole in the river, and 
started northward." 

Charley found himself alone in the road, the river on 
his right hand, broad fields on his left, and no house in 
sight ; as to the north star, he looked towards it when 
his friend pointed towards it, but did not know which it 
was ; his education had been neglected. Smart negroes 
knew that star by sight. Wlien a slave could find the 
north star, and show his mother how he knew it, and by 
what signs he found it, he was ready to graduate — he 
had finished his education — but Charley, poor fellow, 
had been having an easy time, riding about with his 
master, caring for the horses, blacking his boots, and 
brushing his clothes, and had not thought of going north 
until his mother told him that he had been sold. 
Besides, Charley was terribly disappointed. He sup- 
posed he was to be delivered to his master ; that a white 
man would feed him and help him on his way to free- 
dom, when he could have $500 for less trouble and no 
risk, he had not supposed was possible. He began to 
feel dizzy and faint, went a few rods and sat down, and 
soon fell asleep. He dreamed that two men were putting 
him into jail ; he struggled, and awoke up finding him- 
self alone, and darkness all around. He soon aroused 
sufficiently to understand the situation, and started along 
the road, not knowing whether lie was going north or 
south, l)ut kept going until it began to be light, when he 
saw a paper nailed to a board fence with a picture of a 



22 SKETCHES OF THE 

negro running, and looking like the advertisement that 
the landlord showed him in his harn. AVhile he stood 
looking at it, a man came hehind him, put his hand on 
his shoulder, and said, what have we here ? He turned 
to run, but the man held on to him, speaking kindly, and 
paid, " don't be frightened, let us see what this is about ;" 
then he read the advertisement, and looking at Charley, 
said, " this means you ; come with me, there is no time 
to be lost." He took him to a safe place far back in the 
woods, and seeing that he had bread with him, he said, 
'•' I will bring you more food to-night," and left him. 

When he came to bring food, he told Charley that he 
would have to stay a few days until the men that were 
looking for him were gone. He was soon taken to a 
comfortable place, but it was two or three weeks before 
his kind conductor felt safe in starting with him. 

The route from Wheeling was supposed to be towards 
Detroit at that season of the year, and the hunters were 
able to trace Charley going that way. They met, all 
along the way, men who had seen him, and could des- 
cribe him as well as if they had known him from his 
childhood. Those rascally U. G. R. R. conductors were 
|)u;ting him through Carroll, >Starke, Wayne, Ashland, 
and Huron counties, toward Detroit, where he could cross 
over. There were j)lenty of men along this route that 
were waiting to show them the way he had gone, 

?deanwhile, Charley was on the short route to Buffalo, 
by way of Meadville, Pa., and Westfield, X. Y., though no 
rium saw him on the ivay. 

At Westfield Mr. Knowlton kept the station, and it 
was his splendid team, that on that cold day in Decem- 
l)cr, came into Fredonia and turned off at the old Pem- 
l)erton stand on the West Hill, and landed Charley at 
the cosy little station in Cordova, from whence he was 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 23 

sent forward the next day to Black Rock and across the 
river to Canada, 

In relating Charley's escape, I have met some people 
who douhtcd that story about the landlord in Wheeling, 
That kind of people have found the parable of the good 
Samaritan a stumbling block too great to get over, and 
so multitudes of men have neglected the whole of the 
New Testament rather than believe and practice its 
lesson. 



24 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER II. 

dan's trip from DUNKIRK SEES HIS MASTER IN THE 

CAR R. R. conductor's ADVICE FRIENDS IN NEED — 

SAFE ARRIVAL IN CANADA. 

On a dark night in .lanuary, 1858, about midnight, we 
were aroused by heavy steps on the piazza, and the signal 
of the express train of the U. G. R. R. On opening the 
door we saw the laughing face of the conductor from the 
second station west, and above his head, (he was a short 
man,) the face of a terribly frightened negro. " Here," 
said the conductor, "is something to be done in a 
hurry ; this is a valuable feller, I tell ye, and his master 
is close at his heels. You can't conceal him here, for the 
old man will be down on you before morning. He's a 
valuable feller, and they are sharp on his tracks." 

We had a live engine in the barn, with a light car on 
runners, and the first impulse was to fire up and run to 
the next station, where friend Andrew and his good wife 
had a way of circumventing slave catchers in a manner 
peculiar to themselves, of which more may be said at 
another time. This plan was, however, rejected as 
unsafe. 

On consultation it was decided thtit he should be 
lodged in an old house back in a field, on the skirts of 
the village, the house belonging to an old sailor, who 
had been converted from so-called Democracy to human- 
ity, by having, while commanding a vessel on Lake 
Erie, been pressed into service in connection with the 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 25 

U. G. H. R. The Captain had been educated to believe in 
the so-called Democratic doctrine, " that slavery is the 
chief corner-stone of free institutions," but if I were to 
tell his experience in running his first train on this road, 
you would agree with me that the secrets of our officers 
would be safe in his hands. I may do so some time. 

Dan had been forwarded from Corning to Dunkirk on 
a freight car, and on liis arrival in the evening, the 
agent to whom he was consigned bought his ticket to 
Buffalo, and seated him behind the door at the rear end 
of the car. Just as it was starting two men came in and 
took seats near the other end of the car, their backs 
toward him. One of them was his master, and the other 
a celebrated slave hunter. AVhen the conductor came 
for his ticket, Dan said to him, " Master, will you please 
stop and let me get off ? ," Conductor said, " are you 
afraid of those fellows with the red whiskers ? " " Yes," 
said Dan, " I know 'em." " Do they know you are 
here ? " " Guess not," said Dan. " Well, follow me, said 
the conductor. Taking Dan into another car, he told 
him to step off as soon as the train stopped, and go be- 
hind a woodpile, and the depot agent would find him as 
soon as the train started, and tell him where to go. The 
conductor told the agent, at Silver Creek, who found him 
as soon as the train started, so scared that he could 
hardly stand or speak, and sent a boy with him to a 
Democratic Deacon, Andrews, and he, without knowing 
it, put him again on the line of the U. G. R. R. in Ark- 
wright, by giving him in charge of a colored man, 
John Little. The next night the wide-awake con- 
ductor, farmer Cranston, near Forestville, arrived at our 
station near 12 o'clock, as above stated. 

Dan was warmed and fed, and secreted in the old house 
until it was deemed safe for him to go on, supposing the 
4 



26 SKETCHES OF THE 

pursuers to have lost the track and abandoned the 
search. But not so ; their spies were on the line watching 
every little skiff in Black Rock harbor, when friend 
Andrew, just at daylight, having signaled the boatmen, 
left his carriage in a back street, and led Dan through a 
narrow lane to where a boat lay hid, and out of the 
water. It was launched in a moment, and Dan and two 
boatmen were on their way to Canada before the spies 
watching the other boats could give the alarm. 

While friend A. stood on the shore watching the fugi- 
tive as he landed on the Canada side, the slave hunters 
arrived on the spot, and seeing an honest looking face 
under a broad brim, inquired if he had seen a " nigger " 
starting from somewhere along there in a. boat. Being 
answered in the affirmative, with a pretty good descrip- 
tion of him, and the remark that " he is safe now, for he 
has just landed under the flag of Old England," they 
came out on the old man with a terrible volley of oaths, 
threats and imprecations. His cool answer was, " Friend, 
inasmuch as such conversation can avail thee nothing, 
would it not be wise to say no more about it ? Fare- 
well ; " and he went to his carriage and started home- 
ward. 

Dan came back and worked, for the Captain the next 
summer. Afterwards he attended school, and when the 
112th Regiment went to the front, from this county, Dan 
went as waiter for an officer. 



UNDERGKOrXD KAILROAD. 27 



CHAPTER III. 

TOM STOWE HIS VALUE TO HIS MASTER — HIS BOY SOLD 

AND HIS WIFE DIES — -HE FINDS HIS BOY — HIS ESCAPE 
TO PITTSBURG, AND THENCE TO CANADA. 

The " fugitives from labor " who took passage on the 
U. G. R. R., were generally of the most intelligent class, 
and but for their use of certain words and phrases com- 
mon to both master and servant in the slave States, they 
would often have been rejected as having no claim to 
accommodations on our line. One of the most remark- 
able men of this class that came this way was Tom 
Stowe. Tom's master was a sporting gentleman, living, 
when at home, on his plantation, about 18 miles from 
Vicksburgh, Miss., and was known from New Orleans to 
Baltimore as an enterprising, reckless and generally suc- 
cessful sporting man, but not as a common gambler. 
He kept from ten to twenty race horses, a half dozen 
fighting dogs, and never failed to buy the smartest fight- 
ing cocks, at whatever price. Tom said he had paid as 
high as §1,000 for a single cock. Tom was head man in 
his sporting establishment, managed the training, groom- 
ing, feeding and fitting of all the animals and birds, and 
had become so necessary and important an item in the 
concern, that Stowe more than once refused to sell him 
for 83,000, offered by rival sportsmen. They usually 
started north in April, by the way of the Mississippi and 
Ohio Rivers, sported some at Memphis, Louisville and 



^ 



28 SKETCHES OF THE 

Cincinnati, and leaving the steamboat at Wheeling, went 
up to Morgantown, where they stopped to recruit and fit 
the horses and fighting cocks for the June races and 
sporting in Baltimore. Stowe would often leave Tom in 
charge of the establishment while recruiting in Morgan- 
town, and go to Philadelphia and Baltimore. 

Morgantown is only six miles from the Pennsylvania 
line on the Monongahela River. The grocer of wdiom 
he bought supplies was in the habit of talking to him 
about the free States, and told him that he could get to 
Canada if he w^ould try, but Tom answered that he had 
many times passed up the Ohio, and knew he was near 
the free States, but he did not wisli to go aw^ay ; besides, 
his master could not spare him. Tom had known this man 
four or five years, but was shy of him, supposing he in- 
tended to betray him for a -reward, should he listen to 
his suggestions. After the races in Baltimore Tom w^as 
usually left in B. in charge of the stock, while Stowe 
went north to New York and Saratoga. In the fall, 
their sporting tour toward home was through Rich- 
mond, Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. Thus 
by extensive travel and business intercourse with many 
men, Tom became intelligent, and carried about with 
him a heart-yearning for freedom. He was always w^ell 
fed, well dressed, trusted with money, and left by his 
master often on the very borders of the free States. He 
remained faithful to his trust, and his master knew he 
would, and knew the reason why. Tom was, in size and 
form, a splendid specimen of a man ; tall, straight, and 
handsome, nearly white, weighed about tw^o hundred 
pounds, and not an ounce of spare material about him. 
Lucy, his wife, (as he described her,) was also nearly 
white, an octoroon, one of those wdiose rare beauty and 
accomplishments are the greatest misfortune that can 



UNDERGROrXD KAILROAD 29 

befall one of her race. She had been brought up in the 
house, and was lady/s maid to Stowe's wife. Stowe had 
consented to their marriage, hoping thereby to prevent 
Tom of availing himself of the U. G. R. R., in sight of 
whose depots along the Ohio River they often passed. 
They had a boy, who was the pride and joy of his 
mother. Stowe had bought some colts in Texas, and 
sent Tom to bring them home ; and while he was absent 
the old man sold their little boy, only three years old, to 
a trader, in a paroxysm of rage because Lucy would not 
be unfaithful to Tom. AVhen he came home, he found 
her but just alive, only able to tell him that Georgiehad 
been sold to a trader by the name of Austin, and carried 
off. She died of a broken heart for the loss of her boy. 
It was difficult for Tom to get through this part of his 
story, and the meanest copperhead in our village, could 
he have heard and seen him, would never again dispute 
that a slave has a soul. 

After Tom had buried his wife, his first impulse was 
towards finding his boy, determined not to leave his 
master until he had learned something about him. 
Stowe avoided going north by th^ir usual route, fearing, 
no doubt, that he would lose his man. At the end of 
two years Tom saw Austin, who told him that he sold 
Georgie to a lawyer in Savannah, and soon after, being 
in that city with his master, he called on the lawyer at 
his office, and asked him if he had bought such a boy. 
" Yes," he said, '• I bought him, though I always was 
opposed to owning slaves, but they were selling the little 
fellow at auction. He would not have sold for §50 but 
for his beauty. They had bid §700 ; his beauty and his 
grief were too much for my caution and my principles, 
and on the spur of excitement, I bid §800, and no one 
would raise the bid. " Now," said he, " I suppose he 



30 SKETCHES OF THE 

must be related to you, as you are inquiring about him, 
and he looks like you." He directed Tom where to go, 
and said he would be home soon. AVhen he called, he 
was invited into the parlor, where he found Georgie with 
his mistress, who had been teaching him to read. I can- 
not describe Tom's interview with his boy, and with the 
kind gentleman and lady with whom he was living. 
They would not regard him as a slave, and said if Tom 
should ever find himself in a condition to take care of 
Georgie, he should have him. I suppose Tom went for 
him with Gen, Sherman in his " March to the Sea," and 
that he found him in Savannah. If it were so, I wish I 
might have been there to see. 

Tom's master never learned that he had found his 
boy, and as he had manifested no disposition to abscond, 
the old man went north again the next spring by the old 
route, stopping again at Morgantown to fit up for the 
sporting season. Stowe did not dare to leave Tom as 
formerlv, but stayed there to keep an eye on him. . Tom 
found his old friend, who advised him not to let this 
chance slip by without an effort to escape ; he told him 
to cross over to the west side of the Monongahela River, 
keep along as, near the top of the mountain as possible to 
Pittsburgh, (describing the city so that he would know 
it,) go down the mountaiir so as to be at the bridge about 
dusk of the evening, cross over, passing through the city, 
cross over the Alleghany River, then go up that river, 
and it would bring him to Canada. " Well," said I, 
when Tom was telling his story, " The river does not 
reach all the way to Canada." " I found that out," said 
Tom, " but if I had not been picked up and put on to 
this route, I'd have followed that river as far as there was 
a drop of water in it." His friend gave him some bread, 
and Tom started and got on to the mountain — cut a 



rNDERGROUND RAILROAD, 31 

heavy hickory cane, traveled in the day time and slept 
at night, never leaving the highest part of the mountain 
except when a ravine crossed his path, and arrived in 
sight of the city of Pittsburgh without having seen a 
man except once. The third day, about noon, he went 
down iiito a deep ravine, and came suddenly upon six 
men engaged in eating their dinner. One of them said, 
" There is that two thousand dollar nigger," and seizing 
an axe, came at him, ordering him to surrender. "With 
the butt of his hickory cane Tom knocked the man 
down, when another man struck at him with an axe ; 
stepping back, the axe missed him, and swung the man 
around so that Tom's bludgeon hit square across his 
mouth. He then ran up the ravine, and commenced 
climbing the almost perpendicular mountain, rolling a 
stone on to the only man that attempted to follow. The 
last he saw of the other three men, they were carrying 
off that man's body. Having learned by these men, as 
he supposed, that a reward of §2,000 was offered for him, 
he feared to go within speaking distance of any one, but 
managed to get through Pittsburgh, and followed along 
the rocky crest of the mountain within sight of the 
Alleghany River to near Franklin. Coming down near 
the road, he saw a negro coming towards him, and ven- 
tured to ask him to procure some bread for him, being 
nearly starved, and hardly able to walk with a sprain in 
his ankle. Tom's fear of being sent back was so great 
that he could hardly be persuaded to see the face of a 
white man. He supposed that everybody had seen the 
advertisement, and suspected even his negro brother. 
Tom was, however, in safe hands. His friend took him 
to our depot near Franklin, Pa., where he could not be 
induced to stay until his foot recovered, though it was 
much swollen, and he could bear no weight upon it. 



S-? 



SKETCHES OF THE 



His route from Franklin came through "Warren, James- 
town, EUington and Leon. He asked me to put my 
name on his paper, on which I found the names of all 
the conductors that had put him through. He could not 
be persuaded to stay over but a daj^, therefore the train 
started at midnight, fording the river, and going through 
the dark woods, (a horrible road in those days,) arrived 
before daylight at Friend Andrew's hospitable station. 
^Vnother idle day was passed, and the next morning 
about break of day, when Andrew put him on a boat at 
Black Rock, Tom sent his trusty hickory back to me. I 
had asked him for it, offering a nice cane in exchange, 
but he declined parting with it until he got beyond the 
force of the fugitive slave law ; it had been his sole wea- 
poxi, and in his strong arm had proved more than a 
match for six men, backed by a reward of ^2,000. 

I was so much interested by the following incident 
that I will relate it in Tom's own words, Tom was anx- 
ious to go to Cleveland, but dared not venture. A gen- 
tleman living there had offered to aid him should he 
ever need it, and he thought he would send for his boy 
if he could but see him. Tom said : 

" Six years ago, we were coming north on a steamboat 
on the Mississippi, when the boat was burned. Mr. W., 
the gentleman above named, and his daughter, on 
his Avay home from New Orleans, occupied a state-room 
near the bow of the boat, where I had the horses. Mas- 
ter was frightened out of his wits, and begged me to 
save him, so I pushed the finest horse overboard, and got 
the old man into the river, with the tail of the horse in 
his hands ; I then cut the lariat, and the horse landed 
the old man a mile below. The next thing I heard was 
a lady at her cabin window near by, screaming for help. 
I took her out of the window, threw the landing plank 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 33 

into the water, put her upon it, and by swimming with 
my hands on the plank, managed to land two or three 
miles down the river. Her father had left the cabin in 
search of means to save her, when the fire compelled her 
to accept my assistance, and she supposed he had per- 
ished ; but he, having sought in vain for her, had been 
finally driven by the flames to the water, and by the aid 
of one of our horses, had got ashore. Each supposed 
the other had perished, but before noon he had found 
his daughter, and when he heard how she escaped, he 
offered Mr. Stowe any amount of money he should ask 
for my freedom ; but the old man said that no money 
could induce him to part with me as long as he kept 
horses to be cared for. The lady gave me a diamond 
ring, for which a gentleman offered me $100, but it was 
on Lucy's finger when she died, and I buried it with her. 
I suppose it is there now." 

In speaking of his own acts, Tom was very modest. 
His language was more like that of a Southern gentle- 
man traveling in the North than I had ever heard from 
a slave before ; but certain phrases were unmistakable. 
He was a genuine native of Mississippi. 

This sketch is somewhat long, though I have omit- 
ted many interesting incidents related by Tom. I will 
add one laughable occurrence. A little before daylight 
one morning of Tom's flight, he looked into a cabin 
window, saw a table all set for breakfast, and the mistress 
sound asleep in a chair before the fire. No men were in 
sight, so Tom opened the door, seized a loaf of bread and 
a ball of butter and ' left. As he passed the old shanty 
barn, he heard the man, but he went on unmolested. 
Tom's description of the woman was ludicrous, and I 
always laugh when I try to imagine the consternation of 
those people when they sat down to that early breakfast. 



34 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER IV. 

ORIGIN OF THE U, G. R. R, " JO NORTOX." 

The first well established line of the U. G. R. R. had 
its southern terminus in Washington, D. C, and ex- 
tended in a pretty direct route to Albany, N. Y., thence 
radiating in all directions to all the New England States, 
and to many parts of this State, Comparatively few 
crossed over to Canada until after the enactment of the 
fugitive slave law in 1850, at which time the aforesaid 
route had been in successful operation about eleven 
years. The severe penalties inflicted by that law for 
feeding, or aiding in the escape, or harboring " fugitives 
from labor," made it necessary to extend the lines of the 
R. R. directly through to Canada. Previous to 1850, 
slaves were sometimes seized and carried back under the 
Constitution, but no penalty could be inflicted for feed- 
ing, employing, or secreting them. 

The General Superintendent resided in Albany. I 
know him well. He was once an active member of one 
of the churches in Fredonia. Mr. T., his agent in 
Washington city, was a ver^^ active and efficient man ; 
the Superintendent at Albany was in daily communica- 
tion by mail with him and other subordinate agents at 
all points along the line. 

It should not be supposed that the few humble indi- 
viduals actually engaged in the active operations of this 
institution, were the only persons interested in it. Some 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 35 

of the best men in the nation were stockholders ; men 
of wealth and influence, men in office, State and nation- 
al, — men, women and children identified themselves 
with its affairs. It had the aid and approval of the 
most distinguished philanthropists of the age, and many 
far-seeing politicians, descrj'ing the conflict between 
slave and free labor, took sides with the latter. 

It was a deep-laid scheme, having in view the restor- 
ation of God-given rights to helpless, hunted fugitives, 
making slaveholders realize that money paid for human 
chattels was an insecure investment, resulting in gradual 
emancipation, and finally in total abolition with the 
consent of the slaveholders themselves. Having thus 
slightly sketched the formation of the Company of the 
Underground R. R, and its object, I will narrate the 
wanderings of Jo Xorton. 

"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD — A MYSTERY NOT YET 
SOLVED." 

Such was the heading of an article in one of the 
morning papers in the city of Washington, on Saturday 
morning of the last week in October, 1839, from which 
I copy as closely as I can from memory, not having 
time to look up the paper : 

'• The abolition incendiaries are undermining, not 
only our domestic institutions, but the very foundations 
of our Capitol. Our citizens will recollect that the boy 
Jim, who was arrested while lurking about the Capitol 
in August, would disclose nothing until he was subjected 
to torture by screwing his fingers in a blacksmith's vice, 
when he acknowledged that he was to have been sent 
north by railroad ; was to have started from near the 
place where he stood when discovered by the patrol. He 
refused to tell who was to aid him — said he did not 
know — and most likely he did not know. Nothing more 
could be got from him until they gave the screw another 
turn, when he>.said, "the railroad ucnt underground all the 



36 



SKETCHES OF THE 



way to Bodon.'" Our citizens are losing all their best ser- 
vants. Some secret, Yankee arrangement has been 
contrived by which the}^ '' stampede " from three to eight 
at a time, and not a trace of them can be found until 
they reach the interior of New York, or of the New 
England States. They cannot gave gone b}' railroad, as 
every station is closely watched by a secret police, yet 
there is no other conveyance by which a man can reach 
Albany from this city in two days. That they have done 
so, is now fully demonstrated. Colonel Hardy, a tobacco 
planter, residing in the District, about five miles from 
the city, lost five more slaves last Sunday evening. They 
were pursued by an expert slave catcher, but no trace of 
them was discovered. The search was abandoned this 
morning, the Colonel having received a paper called the 
Liberty Press, printed in Albany, with an article marked, 
so as to attract his attention, which reads as follows : 

" 'Arrived, this morning, by our fast line, three men 
and two women. They were claimed as slaves by Col- 
onel H., of the District of Columbia, but became dis- 
satisfied with the Colonel's ways, and left the old fellow's 
premises last Sunday evening, arriving at our station by 
the quickest passage on record.' 

" The article goes on reciting certain incidents that 
have transpired in the Colonel's family, that correspond 
so exactly with facts that the Colonel says, ' Nobody but 
Kate could have told that story ! ' Said article closes 
by saying : ' Now, Colonel H., please give yourself no 
trouble about these friends of yours, for they will be safe 
under the protection of the British Lion before this 
meets your eyes.' " 

Thus it will be seen that this famous thoroughfare was 
first called the " Underground Railroad," in the city of 
Washington. 

That article was published in the Liberty Press for " a 
southern market." The facts of the case are theste : The 
three men, Jo, Robert, and Harry, lay concealed in a 
rude cabin, which was covered out of sight by a pile of 
corn stalks, about six miles from Baltimore, near the 
road toward Washington. The women, Kate and 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 67 

Nancy, were in a similar hut near by during the first 
day, but were conveyed in a carriage to a safe place in 
Baltimore, Monday evening, arriving there about eight 
o'clock. These were the first two stations on the route, 
and here they all remained until the aforesaid article 
appeared in the Washington paper, and Col. H. had 
called in his hounds, both biped aaid quadruped, when, 
the excitement having subsided, their further progress 
was comparatively easy. 

Before pursuing the thread of their story beyond this 
point, I must go back a few days and commence the nar- 
rative as it was related at my own fireside by one of the 
parties, the aforesaid Jo, whom I chanced to meet in this 
village and made a bargain with to go to school, paj'ing 
for his board by doing chores. Jo was very intelligent, 
but said his uncle Harry was a " heap " smarter than he 
was, and led the party whenever they ran their own 
train. 

Jo worked on the plantation " making tobacco," as he 
termed it, in the summer, and after he was sixteen years 
old, he was hired out as waiter in a hotel in Washington 
every winter. He used to boast of standing behind 
Daniel Webster's chair, and waiting on him at the table, 
and that his wife, Mar}", had the care of his rooms. They 
had now been married about four years. She lived, 
when not in service at the hotel, with the Judson family 
in the cit}^ Judson held her as a slave, though his 
father told her, that by his will, she would, at his death, 
be free. When Jo was not employed in the city, he was 
allowed to go to church, and to visit his wife on Sunday 
once in two weeks. When the gout got an extra twist 
on the old Colonel's toes, he would be cross and refuse to 
give him a pass. But Jo had a true friend in the old 
man's daughter, whose love letters he carried both ways, 
and never betra^^ed her secrets. She did the old man's 



SKETCHES OF THE 



writing at such times, and would always provide him 
with a pass without asking very carefully whether it was 
his day to go to town or not, 

Jo had long meditated an escape, more for the sake of 
Mary, and for the anxiety they both felt for their little 
boy, James, than on his own account. On his way home 
one Sunday evening, he fell in company wdth a gentle- 
man walking in the same direction. Jo knew by his 
language that he was from the north, and felt, (as he ex- 
pressed it,) in his bones, that the gentleman might be 
trusted as a friend. I need not relate all that passed be- 
tween them ; another interview was appointed at the end 
of two weeks, at which time it was arranged that Mary 
and the little boy should remain a while longer, and Jo 
was to start with some others, three weeks from that 
evening. 

Just "ixfter it was dark, at the time appointed, at the 
signal, Jo slowly raised his head above a clump of bushes 
in which he was concealed, in the old cemetery by the 
turnpike, near the bounds of the city, and was aston- 
ished to see four other heads arise as if they came out of 
the graves, from behind tombstones and low bushes ; all 
of them silent and motionless, until they heard signal 
No. 2, when, with silent tread, they all approached the 
signal station, trembling with sviperstitious fear, without 
even daring to whistle to keep off the " spooks." When 
thev came together, all of them were surprised to find 
that they were acquainted and related to each other. 
Each knew that others were going, but none knew who 
the others were until they met among the tombs. The 
other four had been hired out by Colonel H. to ditferent 
parties in the city, and not one had revealed to any 
other the secret of their movements. The man who met 
them there was a stranger to all of them, as they expect- 
ed he would be, but having exchanged signals they con- 



UXDERGROtTND RAILROAD. 39 

fided in him. Jo always declared that they were expect- 
ing to "just go down into the ground among the dead 
folks," and in some mysterious way be carried off, and 
their fears had almost got the better of their longings for 
liberty, when they were joyfully relieved by the con- 
ductor, who told them that they were to follow the turn- 
pike until they came near the railroad, then " take the 
R. R. track, passing around stations in the fields and 
woods, find the track again, and go on until you see a 
man standing in the middle of the track ; then stop and 
listen, and if you hear him say ' Ben,' go to him and do 
as he tells you." He then appointed Harry as their con- 
ductor, told them to walk fast, as they had thirty miles 
to go, showed them the north star and its bearings upon 
their route, shook hands, and with quivering lips, bade 
them God speed. They were soon out of his sight. 

They traveled by starlight until about midnight, when 
clouds obscured the stars, and in passing around a vil- 
lage, they got bewildered and lost. After wandering in 
the fields and woods an hour or more, they stopj^ed to 
consult about their course, and found that there were 
five different directions, each of which was strenuously 
contended for as the way to go, and there would prob- 
ably have been six ways had there been another man in 
their party. They were almost in despair when the 
clouds broke away, and Harry said, " Now I find him." 
Harry's education consisted of one lesson in astronomy, 
viz. : how to find the north star by the bearing of the con- 
stellation called the "great bear." Harry soon discov- 
ered it, and said in low tones, "dis am de way, know it 
all de time, dat am de old norf," pointing at the star. It 
happened, however, to be Kate instead of Harry, that 
had guessed right. 

So much time had been lost, that, as Jo said, "' de 
chickens began to crow " before they discovered " Ben '' 



40 SKETCHES OF THE 

standing on the track. They stopped until Ben spoke 
his own name, when they followed him into a field, and 
coming to a stack of corn stalks, Ben removed a few 
bundles, and the men went in. The women were se- 
creted in a similar place, and after a hearty breakfast, 
provided for them by their host, they all laid down and 
slept soundly. 

Ben was a free negro, very old and decrepit. He had 
been supplied with money to rent this field, and " make 
a crop of corn," and to fix up the place and take care of 
it. The stacks of corn in which they were secreted were 
close to the railroad, so that no one would look in so 
public a place for fugitives. Old Ben, during the next 
day, obliterated all tracks in the field by husking and 
moving his bundles of stalks. As soon as it was dark a 
man took Kate and Nancy away. They walked along 
the track to a cross road, and along the road some dis- 
tance, then started for Baltimore in a coach, driven by a 
negro. The boys did not awake until an hour after the 
women were gone, when they were aroused by a pack of 
hounds. The dogs were moving carefully about, as they 
often do when the track is old, occasionally giving out a 
sharp yelp. When they struck the fresh tracks of Kate 
and Nancy, who had been gone about an hour, the whole 
pack broke into a wild scream, varying between the 
hoarse howl of the old hounds and shrill screech of the 
pups. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 



41 



CHAPTER V. 

JO NORTON, CONTINUED MAKING THEIR WAY FROM 

WASHINGTON TO ALBANY JO GOES TO SCHOOL LEC- 
TURES TO BUY HIS WIFE AND CHILD SUCCEEDS THE 

HAPPY MEETING, 

The plan adopted by the enterprising managers of the 
U. G. R. R. to mislead the owners of the fugitives, and 
induce them to give up the chase, was kept secret a long 
time, and great numbers escaped thereby without cap- 
ture or accident between the Capitol city of the Nation 
to that of our own State, A letter containing an ac- 
count of the flight of a party, with sufficient details to 
enable the manager at Albany to get up a " local article " 
for the Liberty Press, was sent by mail as soon as the}- 
left Washington. 

The boys did not leave the station kept by Ben, nor 
the girls their hiding-place in Baltimore, until the 
owner had abandoned the pursuit, having learned by 
the aforesaid paper, ichat he took cis positive proof, that they 
were beyond his reach. 

There were many exciting incidents related by Jo, in 
connection with their passage north, but the space 
allotted to these sketches will not admit of their relation, 
I will briefly say that the boys passed through the city 
of Baltimore between eight and nine o'clock in the even- 
ing, passing through the most public streets, stopping 
two or three times to buy apples and peanuts at the 
fruit stands, for which purpose their guide and conductor 
6 



42 SKETCHES OF THE 

had given them some money. He (the guide), was a 
sharp colored boy, not more than thirteen years old. 
They followed their instructions, by keeping in sight of 
their guide, and talking about a meeting which had 
been held that evening, from which they appeared to be 
returning home. As Jo and Harry were zealous Metho- 
dists, it was easy for them to prolong a conversation on 
such a topic indefinitely ; " the powerful preach-in," and 
"how happy that yaller gal was," &c., they talked as 
loudly and as earnestly as others, who, at that hour, 
crowded the well-lighted streets. They reached the out- 
skirts of the city before the hour when negroes must not 
be seen in the streets, where they met the girls in charge 
of a man, who gave further directions, and started 
north. 

From thence to Philadelphia they traveled on foot in 
the night, stopping through the day at farm houses with 
Quakers. Jo said they never tailed to find a good break- 
fast in readiness on their arrival, and the people expect- 
ing them before it was light. 

From Philadelphia they went on a small fishing boat 
to Bordentown, thence to New York by railroad. The 
boys were stowed away among bales and boxes in a 
freight car, and the girls by the evening train in a first- 
class car ; they were dressed as ladies, with veils over 
their faces. A gentleman, assuming the air of a South- 
erner, walked between them, pushing aside a man at the 
door, whose business it was to detect runaway slaves ; 
they stepped in just as the car started. Having arrived 
safely in New York, they were pushed forward to 
Albany, and Jo's companions being provided for, we dis- 
miss them and follow only the fortunes of Jo. 

Jo was expecting that his wife, Mary, and their little 
boy, would come on by a route better suited to their con- 
dition, but he soon heard that her master, having de- 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 43 

tected her in an attempt (as he supposed), to get away, 
threw her into prison until he could sell her to he sent 
into the rice swamps ; the worst punishment that could 
be inflicted on a slave. This was a terrible blow to Jo's 
prospects, and having saved a few dollars by his indus- 
try, he left his friends in Albany, and started west under 
instructions just a year from the day he left the old plan- 
tation. He wanted to find a place where he could work 
for his board and go to school. I kept him on such 
terms, and he began to learn the alphabet at twenty-five 
years of age. He was faithful and attentive to his busi- 
ness and his books, and although naturally overflowing 
with mirth and music, he had frequent attacks of deep 
melancholy, amounting to almost despair, on account of 
the uncertainty of the fate of his wife and child. 

Soon after Congress met in December, 1840, I learned 
that General Chaplin was in Washington reporting for 
his paper, the aforesaid lAherty Press, of which he was one 
of the editors, and I proposed to Jo to ask him to enquire 
after ]\lary, to which he assented, though with but little 
hope of success. But as soon as the letter, giving Mr. C. 
directions to guide him in looking for Mary, was mailed, 
Jo became very nervous, called at the post office two or 
three times a day, and began to wonder that the letter 
had not been answered before it could have reached 
Washington. In eight or ten days the answer came. 
Mr. Chaplin had found Mary living with Mr. Judson 
her old master. She had been in the jail three months^ 
'during which time another child was born and had died. 
Judson then proposed to forgive her, and take her again 
into his family on condition she would solemnly promise 
to never again attempt to run away, to which she agreed, 
and gave up all hope of ever seeing her husband. He 
told Mr. C. that he had just been offered $800 for her, 
but she was a favorite servant in his familv ; moreover, 



44 SKETCHES OF THE 

he had never sold a shxve, and thought he never would, 
but if her husband wished to redeem her and her boy, 
now four years of age, he would accept for both $350, if 
paid by March 4th, at which time Mr. C. would go home, 
and could take them along, provided the money could 
be raised. Jo laughed and cried, prayed and gave 
thanks to the blessed Lord all at once, but soon fell again 
into despair, for how could he get so much money in so 
short a time ? 

It was arranged that Jo should undertake to raise the 
money himself by holding meetings in school-houses in 
country districts, tell his own story, relate incidents in 
plantation life, &c., and take up collections. Accord- 
ingly, appointments were sent to nearly all the schools 
in the town, and in two days the work was begun. Jo 
went to school every day, and at night he would go from 
two to six miles and hold a meeting. At the first meet- 
ing we collected |6, a good beginning for a country dis. 
trict. After some ten days he gave up his school, and 
taking letters to leading abolitionists in adjacent towns, 
he started off alone. On the 26th day of January, I met 
him by appointment at Ellicottville. I had, the day be- 
fore, received another letter from Mr. Chaplin, containing 
an offer from Judson, to take $50 less than his first offer, 
provided the $300 should be paid him by the first day of 
February. On counting his money it amounted to only 
about $100 ; several gentlemen , came into Esquire 

H 's office, where we were, and Judge Chamberlain, 

now deceased, proposed to be one of ten men who were 
present, to give a joint note for $200, and all share alike 
in paying the balance after Jo had done all he could be- 
fore his wife should arrive. The note was made, and T. 
R. Colman, of Dunkirk, a gentleman who is now a suc- 
cessful banker in Chautauqua County, advanced the 
money, being himself one of the signers of the note, and 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 45 

one of the lawyers of Ellicottville drove to Buffalo, fifty 
miles, in a terrible storm, bought a draft and mailed it 
in time to reach Washington by the date specified, so 
that free papers were secured for Mary and her boy. 

It was agreed that Jo should send money as fast as col- 
lected to Mr. E. She]3ard Colman, of Ellicottville, and if 
there was not enough to pay the note, he was to collect 
the balance from the signers and pay it. Jo then started 
on a " lecturing tour," as he called it, through Wyom- 
ing, Genesee and Erie Counties, collecting small sums 
wherever his friends could get up a meeting, and when 
he arrived at my house again on the 10th day of March, 
I had just received a letter from Mr. Chaplin, saying 
that he had brought Mary and her boy to Utica, and Jo 
must come without delay. He gave me every dollar 
that he 'he^d collected, which was only about $5 short of 
the amount due on the note ; I gave him |30 of it, and 
he started for Utica about sunset ; although he had 
walked from Buffalo that day, 27 miles, he walked back 
in time to take an early train the next morning. A few 
days after, I met an old friend who resided in Syracuse, 
who told me that he met Jo on the train, and learning 
from him his story, he wont to Utica with him, intending 
to witness the meeting, but was not present when they 
first met each other ; however, he was well paid for go- 
ing by witnessnig their happiness soon after. In due 
time I received a line from Mr. C, of Ellicottville, ac- 
knowledging the receipt of the money, and as it fell short 
but |35, he had paid the whole of the note, and said, 
" you and I will make all right between us," However, 
as it turned out, there was nothing left to be made right 
between us, for in a few monthis he received a letter con- 
taining a draft for the §35 ; he could not decipher much 
of the letter, but the signature, " Jo Norton," was suffi- 
ciently legible to explain it all. 



46 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

*-'jO NORTON," CONTINUED — HIS QUICKNESS AT REPARTEE 

LECTURES IN VILLENOVA — SETTLES IN SYRACUSE 

ENFORCING THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW — THE " SHAD- 
RACH " CASE IX BOSTON — -EFFECT ON SYRACUSE AND 
THE EMPIRE STATE. 

I have given in detail facts and incidents as evidence 
of Jo Norton's industry, thrift and honesty. He was a 
serious, devoted Christian, yet liis wit and mirthfulness 
were often exliibited in keen repartee, and sarcastic an- 
swers to persons who sought opportunity to embarrass 
him while speaking. There were, even then, men of 
copperhead proclivities, some of whom would occasion- 
ally interrupt him, but I never knew one to try it the 
second time. He was once asked if he worked hard 
when he was a slave? "No!" he replied, "I didn't 
work hard when I could help it." 

" Did you have enough to eat ? " 

" Yes, such as it was." 

" Did you have, decent clothes ? " 

" Yes, midlin'." 

" Well," said the fellow, " you were better off than most 
people are here, and you were a fool to run away." 

" Well, now," said Jo, " the place that I left is there 
yet, I suppose, guess nobody's ever got into it, and if my 
friend here wants it, he can have it by asking for it, 
though perhaps he had better get his Member of Congress 
to recommend hhn." 



rNDEKGROUXD KAILROAD. 47 

Another fellow asked, "Is the speaker in f\ivor of 
amalgamation ? " 

" 'Carnation ? M-hat's that ? " 

'•' It means blacks and whites marrying together." 

"Oh, that's it ! as for such things, they depend mostly 
upon people's taste. For my part, I have a colored wo- 
man for my wife, — that's my choice — and if my friend 
here wants a black wife, and if she is pleased with him, 
I am sure I shan't get mad about it." 

Soon after he commenced collecting funds to redeem 
his family from bondage, he was invited to go to a 
school-house in ^^illenova. He went alone, on foot ; 
when near the place, he saw tw^o boys chopping, and 
heard one of them say, " There's the nigger." Jo stopped 
and said, "I ain't a nigger ! I alius pays my honest 
debts ; my master was a nigger ! See here ! " said Jo, 
"when you chop, you be a chopper, isn't that so?" 
" Yes." " Well, when a man nigs, I call him a nigger. 
Now, my old master, he nigged me out of all I ever 
earned in my life. Of course, he is a nigger ! " and Jo 
sang the chorus of one of Geo. W. Clark's Liberty songs : 

" They worked me all de day, 

Widont one cent of pay ; 

"So I took my flight 

In de middle ob de night, 

When de moon am gone away." 

" Now, boys, come over to the school-house this even- 
ing, and I'll sing the rest of it." That evening Jo had a 
full house and a good donation. 

Jo removed to Syracuse, bought a lot, l:)uilt a good 
house, w^as doing a thriving business and accumulating 
property wJien the " fugitive slave law " was passed, and 
the business of catching and returning fugitives from 
bondage became very active, under the auspices of our 



48 SKETCHES OP THE 

second "accidental chief magistrate," who signed the 
bill, and then enforced it with all the influence and pat- 
ronage he could command. I have now before mo his 
proclamation, calling on the army and navy to rally to 
the aid of the blood-hounds in running down a poor 
man in Boston, by the name of " Shadrach," 

Shadrach had escaped from the "fiery furnace" of 
slavery. The U. S. Marshal seized him, and was binding 
him hand and foot for the purpose of "pitching him 
in " again, but the cords that bound him, somehow came 
apart, and Shadrach walked away, and this time there 
was not even the smell of the aforesaid fire on his gar- 
ments. This put new energy into Mil — rd, he sent a 
special message to Congress, then in session, urging them 
to pass more stringent laws, so that he could compel his 
" subjects " to fall down and worship the image that he 
had set up. Shadrach was re-captured, taken in a man- 
of-war to Richmond, and sold at auction, his purchaser 
giving l^ail that he should be sent south of Virginia. In 
1864 I saw a notice in the papers that he had returned 
to Boston. The fire of slavery had not consumed him; 
but the fire on Fort Sumter had severed the cords that 
bound him. 

The story of " the Shadrach case in Boston " made the 
city of Syracuse a hot-bed- of abolitionism. The people 
met in convention, denounced the law and the men who 
enacted it, and resolved that no slave should be carried 
out of Syracuse. The slaveholders, encouraged by the 
course pursued by the President and the leading mem- 
bers of Congress of all parties, became more and more 
insolent, and cracked their slave whips in plantation 
style. One of them threatened on the floor of Congress, 
that whenever another anti-slavery convention should 
be held in Syracuse a fugitive should be arrested and 
sent back to slavery from that city. The Empire State 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 49 

held a Convention at Syracuse soon after, and an attempt 
was made to execute that threat, but Syracuse stood firm 
to her resohitions, and the attempt failed ; but the 
" Jerry rescue " shook the State from center to circumfer- 
ence. Jo was in that melee. 



50 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE " JERRY RESCUE " JO NORTON HEADS THE PARTY 

THAT RESCUES JERRY EXCITING TIMES IN SYRACUSE 

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW IN CONTEMPT — JO GOES TO 
CANADA. 

The fugitive slave, named Jerry, Iiad been discovered 
by a detective employed by his master, a month or two 
previous to the Anti-Slavery Convention, which had 
been announced for the first of August, I think, though 
I am not certain as to the exact time, and the agent of 
the claimant had been several weeks making arrange- 
ments to carry out the programme that was announced 
in Congress, and published and repeated by the press all 
over the South. " That hot-bed of Abolitionism had got 
to be humbled ; Syracuse was to be taught that there 
was a State known as ' Old A^irginia,' ' The Old Domin- 
ion,' ' Mother of Presidents,' " though even A^irginia re- 
joiced in being able to shirk the responsibility of having 
brought into the world the accidental tenant of the 
White House, whom the chivalry were employing to do 
tlieir dirty work. 

I met Jo early in the morning on the day of the con- 
vention. He said that many of the fugitives had left for 
Canada, having heard rumors that one or more of them 
were to be arrested on that day, but, said Jo, " I have a 
pleasant home here, my children are going to . school, 
and I have all the work I can do. Besides all that," said 



UNDEEGROUND KAILKOAD. 51 

he, " there are not men enough in ^^i^ginia to cany me 
out of this city. If there is to be any excitement of that 
sort here, I'm bound to have a hand in it, and I shall 
stay and help fight it out." 

The vague rumors that were afloat were not sufficient 
to put .Jerry and his friends upon their guard. The 
only persons who hiew what was going on were such as 
sympathized with the slaveholder, for animals of the 
" genus copperhead," had already become sufficiently 
numerous to consume a vast amount of bad whiskey. A 
marshal was brought from Rochester to make the arrest, 
for no citizen of Syracuse could be found who dared to 
" face the music." Jerry, all unconscious of danger, was 
busily employed, hammering away at a barrel in a cooper 
shop, when about twelve o'clock he was seized, and, 
after a brave fight, was ironed hand and foot, thrown 
upon a cart that the marshal had pressed into his ser- 
vice, and started for the office of the Commissioners. 

The Convention had organized in Market Hall, and 
commenced business, when a man came in and inter- 
rupted the proceedings by saying, in an excited manner, 
" jNIr. President, an officer from Eochester has arrested a 
fugitive, and is now carrying him off; they are now on 
the canal bridge." In a moment the Convention was 
broken up, men, women, and children rushed into the 
street, and ran toward the bridge, but before the crowd 
arrived the marshal had got Jerry into the Commission- 
ers' office. 

The city was in an uproar ; no such excitement had 
ever been witnessed in Syracuse before. Thousands of 
people from the country and adjacent towns were there 
to attend the Convention. The fugitives and free col- 
ored men surrounded the building, and they were sur- 
rounded on all sides by a dense mass of people. Some 
of the best lawyers in the State were present, and vohm- 



52 SKETCHES OF THE 

teered their services to defend Jerry, while one lawyer sold 
his services to the slave catchers. The Commissioners' 
office was on the second floor of a large brick building, 
one side of which fronted on the canal. The outside 
door was fastened with heavy bars, and the inner door 
securely locked to keep out the crowd, and it was with 
difficulty that Jerry's friends and counsel got into the 
room where the trial was to be held. 

The trial was protracted and delayed until the court 
and counsel were tired out and hungry, and adjourned 
for supper, leaving the prisoner in charge of the marshal 
and his deputies. The officer took pains to make the 
crowd understand that he was armed, and would shoot 
down any man who should attempt to rescue the pris- 
oner. Meanwhile, Jo had organized a party, and had 
everything ready to storm the stronghold of the slave 
power in Syracuse. Although it was time to light the 
lamps in the streets, the crowd had not diminished nor 
the excitement abated. The court and counsel had but 
just reached the hotel when Jo gave the signal to his 
men, and in an instant a stick of timber twenty feet long 
was mounted on the shoulders of as many stout negroes 
as could stand under it ; at the word " Jo," with a shout 
and run, the battering ram was thrown upon the door, 
and carried all before it. Then Jo, at the head of his 
men, with a crow-bar in his hands, ran up stairs and at- 
tacked the inner door. The marshal was a brave man 
for so great a rascal, — none but rascals of a high grade 
would accept Fillmore's commission under the fugitive 
slave law — and when the door gave way under the furi- 
ous blows of Jo's crow-bar, he fired at him, but Jo was 
too quick for him. The ball went into the floor, and the 
marshal's arm hung limp at his side, shattered by the 
crow-bar. The men rushed in and seized the deputies 
but the marshal jumped through an open window, and 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 53 

fell thirteen feet to the tow-path of the canal ; he man- 
aged to get away in the shadow of the building, and 
found his way to a surgeon's office. 

Jerry was found lying on the floor, bloody, almost 
naked, and bound in chains. He had proved himself a 
hero by fighting the whole United States in the persons 
of the President's special Commissioners. He was pro- 
vided with clothes and money, and the poor fellow never 
saw the city of Syracuse again by daylight. The next 
time we heard from him he was making barrels in 
Canada. 

J. W. Loguen, (colored,) and several others, were 
equally active with Jo Norton in the Jerry rescue, but 
Jo was enthusiastic, brave and unselfish, strong, and 
nimble as a cat, and no one doubted his ability to lead in 
such an affray. The natural kindness of his disposition 
would lead him to prefer breaking the marshal's arm to 
save his own life, rather than to break his head. Rev. J. 
W. Loguen, and several others, were arrested and taken 
to Albany, where they were tried for rescuing the slave, 
but the jury failed to agree upon a verdict. They were 
then sent for trial to Canandaigua, with the same result, 
and the prosecution was finally abandoned. For more 
than a year the Jerry rescue trials kept the State in great 
excitement, but no verdict was obtained against any one 
The Fugitive Slave Law was brought into contempt, and 
Northern dough-faces were taught a salutary lesson. 

Joe could not be made to believe that it was possible 
to carry him out of Syracuse as a fugitive, but he might 
be taken to Albany or elsewhere to be tried for the part 
he had taken in behalf of Jerry, and away from his 
friends he would be liable to l)e arrested and carried 
back to slavery, for Col. H. had long known where he 
was. Therefore he concluded to sell his property and go 
to Canada. He settled in Toronto, where he was re- 



54 SKETCHES OF THE 

spected as a citizen, and took a great interest in the edu- 
cation of his family, and in promoting the best interests 
of fugitives who were constantly arriving there. 

The operations of the Underground Railroad were not 
suspended nor in the least disturl^ed by the efforts of the 
President to enforce the fugitive slave law in Syracuse, 
in illustration of which fact I quote from a Syracuse 
paper soon after, the following card : 

" TO THE FRIENDS OF THE FUGITIVES FROM SLAVERY." 

" The members of the Fugitive Aid Society find it no 
longer convenient nor necessary to keep up their organ- 
ization. The labor of sheltering those who flee from 
tyranny, providing for their immediate wants, and help- 
ing them to find safe honles in this country and in Can- 
ada, must needs devolve, as it always has devolved, upon 
a very few individuals. Hitherto, since 1.S50, it has been 
done, for the most part, by Rev. J. W. Loguen. He, 
having been a slave and a fugitive himself, knows best 
how to provide for that class of sufferers, and to guard 
against imposition. Mr. Loguen has agreed to devote 
himself wholly to this humane work, and to depend for 
the support of himself and family, as well as the mainte- 
nance of this depot on the Underground Railroad, upon 
what the benevolent and friendly may give. 

We, therefore, hereby request that all fugitives from 
slavery, coming this way, may be directed to him ; and 
that all clothing or provisions contributed may be sent 
to his house, or such places as he may designate. 

Mr. Loguen will make semi-annual reports of his 
receipts of money, clothes or provisions, and of the num- 
ber of fugitives taken care of and provided for by him, 
and he will submit liis accounts at any time to the in- 
spection of any persons who are interested in the success 
of the Underground Railroad. 

Samuel J. May, 
James Fuller, 
Joseph A. Allen, 
Lucius J. Comsbee, 
William E. Abbott, 
HosEA B. Knight. 



UNDERGEOUND KAILKOAD. 55 

That notice only affected the line through Syracuse. 
I have made the quotation from a paper now before me, 
that the readers of these brief sketches may understand 
that the U. G. R. R., about which so much has been said 
and so little was known, was no myth, and that its oper- 
ations became more public and more successful after 
than they were before the passage of the fugitive slave 
law. 



56 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GEORGE AND CLARA THEY REACH OBERLIN HOTLY PUR- 
SUED TAKE PASSAGE WITH CAPT. TITUS — RECOGNIZED 

BY THEIR OWNER CAPT. TITUS' EXPERIENCE AN IN- 
CIDENT OF THE BURNING OF THE ERIE ESCAPE OF 

THE FUGITIVES. 

Among the exciting incidents connected with the U. 
G. R. R., no case excited our sympathy more than that 
of George and Clara. George had been his young 
master's body servant ; was of medium height and fine 
proportions, intelligent, respectful, and uncommonly 
efficient in business. Clara was his sister ; she had been 
lady's maid, and had never been overtasked with hard 
work. Both of them had seen a good deal of polite 
society, and availed themselves of such advantages as 
came in their way to acquire information, and some of 
the rudiments of an education. They were polite and 
respectful in their manners, and were as contented and 
happy as people in their condition could be, and perhaps 
they would have remained in slavery, rather than run 
the risk of the terrible punishment they knew awaited 
them, if they should be captured, had not her master 
sold Clara to a trader, who boasted that he could sell her 
in New Orleans for §3,000. His excuse for selling her> 
when his family remonstrated, was that she was insolent 
and refused to obey him. The usual remedy for such 
fault having failed, he sold her ; the particular thing in 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 57 

which she disobeyed he said little about, — whatever 
it was, it had not reduced her 'market value. 

A peculiar affection had always existed between the 
brother and sister. Few slaves had as many comforts and 
advantages as George, yet he loved his sister more than 
all other things, and when he heard that she was sold, 
and her probable fate, he decided at once to save her or 
die in the attempt. Having traveled with his master, he 
knew the roads, and what was of more importance, he 
knew many slaves in most of the towns along their 
route. 

From the time they started from near the capitol 
of Kentucky, until they arrived at Oberlin, a noted U. 
G. R. R. station, within a few miles of Lake Erie, was 
many weeks, yet there was hardly an hour in which they 
were not in imminent danger of being captured. Major 
Curtis, their master, employed Bill Shea, the most noted 
slave catcher in the State, to aid in capturing them, but 
George managed to throw the dogs off the track. They 
went southeast, then turning northeast they got into the 
mountains, and after four weeks the}^ crossed the Ohio 
River, near Parkersburgh, in West Virginia. Our enter- 
prising conductor near that town had them in charge 
before they crossed over. The pursuit was so hot and 
well conducted, that although their track had been often 
lost, it had been as often recovered,. and the conductors 
were many times driven to their wit's end in eluding the 
pursuers. When they arrived at the aforesaid station, 
they were safe for the time ; they might stay there, for 
they were well secreted, besides, slave-hunters themselves 
were not in a safe place if found prowling about Oberlin 
College. 

Curtis was determined to capture them at all hazards. 
He employed spies at different points along the line, and 
at all the Lake ports from Cleveland all the way to 
8 



58 SKETCHES OF THE 

Buffalo. He stayed at Cleveland, but Bill was setting 
his traps along the line. As soon as it was supposed that 
the pursuit had been abandoned, George and Clara were 
started east along the line, with a sharp look-out ahead. 
The spies had been outwitted, and the fugitives had 
passed this point, when a dispatch came along the line 
(not by telegraph, no wires had then been put up), that 
all the crosidngs at Buffalo, Black Bock and Niagara Falls, 
were unsafe. 

They were then hidden away until an opportunity 
offered to smuggle them, in disguise, on to a steamboat 
at her first stopping place on her way from Buffalo to 
Detroit. When the boat came to the dock it was 10 
o'clock in the evening, and when the crew commenced 
" wooding up," two new hands, dressed as sailors, came 
from among the wood piles, and though somewhat awk- 
ward, they worked with all their might, and when the 
wood was all loaded, they went aboard with the sailors, 
and were soon on their way. 

Meanwhile, Bill Shea, Curtis' accomplice, having been 
baffled, had returned to Cleveland to consult with Cur- 
tis. They decided to abandon the pursuit, and take the 
first boat for Sandusky, thence by stage to Cincinnati. 
The boat on which our fugitives had taken passage was 
one of the finest side-wheel steamers on the lake, com- 
manded by Captain Titus, a very popular captain, and 
the same who was in command of the Erie when she was 
burned off Silver Creek. The boat stopped at Cleveland 
for passengers, and just as she was starting off, Curtis and 
Bill came running and jumped on board. When they 
called at the office to pay their passage to Sandusky, the 
clerk said, "We do not stop there, we run to Detroit 
direct." "Well, Major," said Bill, "we, are in for it, I 
guess it's your treat," and they passed down toward the 
bar. Bill could never pass anybody without looking to 



UNDERGROUND KAILKOAD. 59 

see if they answered the description of some slave adver- 
tisement of which he had his hat full. In pursuit of this 
laudable object, he stopped to look at two individuals 
dressed in sailor costume, seated among the bales of 
freight. At the first glance he knew his man. Stepping 
back, he seized the Major and turned him about, saying, 
" There he is ; Major, if that isn't George, may I never 
see Lize again or have a nibble at her corn dodgers." 
Curtis looked at them, recognized both, and said, " Bill, 
the other one is the girl, dressed up in sailor toggery." 
By this time the fugitives had seen and recognized their 
pursuers, and were so agitated that they could not utter 
a syllable. Curtis walked up to them and said, " How 
do ye do ? got into business, ha ? how do you- like it ? 
wasn't aware that you understood this business. Clara 
could do better with women's clothes on. Come, go with 
me, I'll introduce you to the captain ; it would be the 
making of this boat to have you in the ladies' cabin. I 
should think by your appearance that you are sick of the 
business, and maybe you would like to go home ; if so, 
you can go with us, as we are going right back. How 
lucky for you that we happened to meet." The talk was 
embellished witli horrid oaths, and continued a long 
time without a word in answer from the frightened 
fugitives. 

Captain Titus happened to be passing, and stopj^ed to 
witness the scene. He had seen and heard it all. When 
Curtis saw him he said, "Well, captain, I am in luck this 
time ! Here I have been chasing these slaves of mine 
up and down this Lake shore about a month, and finally 
lost track of them and started for home. Bill and I 
have, I fear, committed a sin in swearing about getting 
on the wrong boat, and now it appears that a kind Pro- 
vidence has directed our steps all the time without our 
asking. How long have they been in your employ ? 



60 SKETCHES OF THE 

One of them is a girl ! didn't you know it ? " When he 
stopped and gave a chance to answer, the Captain said, 
" I know nothing about it. I saw them here this morn- 
ing, and suppose they came aboard somewhere last 
night." " All right," said Curtis, " and Captain, I want 
you to do me a favor. You go to Detroit, I believe." 
" Yes," said the Captain. " Well, if you will stop your 
boat at a convenient place in Detroit River, and let us 
ashore, I will give you a hundred dollars. The city of 
Detroit is a very unsafe place in which to handle this 
kind of property." " Very well," said the Captain, " I 
will land at any place you choose, and will charge you 
nothing for it." " Thank you," said Curtis, " but I shall 
pay you well for the favor." 

Captain Titus turned and walked toward his office, 
beckoning his mate, who had heard the last part of the 
conversation, to go with him. They entered the office 
and the Captain locked the door, and taking a seat he 
exclaimed, " ' Pay well for the favor ! ' I'll put him and 
his hound ashore as I promised, without reward, but as 
for those poor frightened fugitives, nothing was said 
about them, and there is not money enough in Kentucky 
to induce me to put them ashore with him. ' Pay well 
for the favor ! ' I have already been paid well for the 
favor that shall be theirs." 

Captain Titus was deeply affected, and sat some time 
apparently unable to speak. As soon as he could, he 
said to his mate, " William, you were not on that unfor- 
tunate boat with me when she was burned, and I think 

you never saw James B , my colored steward on 

that boat. He was of the same race as the millions of 
men, women and children that are held in bondage 
under the flag that flies at our mast-head. The only 
shameful thing that can be said of the old flag is that it 
protects men in doing so foul a deed. I did not always 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 61 

feel so about it, in fact, I thought little about it one way 
or the other, but it is a live question with me now, and I 
will tell you how it came about, for I wish you to aid me 
in this matter, and hope to have your sympathy also. I 
will not recall the terrible scenes through which we 
passed in that awful hour. James stood by me to the 
last, and when the officers and crew had manned the 
boats and gone ashore with as many as they could carry, 
there were still men struggling in the water and trying 
to keep afloat until a vessel that was in sight could come 
to our rescue. James was a good swimmer, but I could 
not swim at all. The flames would soon drive us to the 
water, and I said, 'Could you swim ashore?' 'Oh, 
yes,' said he, ' easily enough, but Captain, I shall stay 
b}^ you.' I felt sure there was no help for me, and that 
he could render me no assistance, so I urged him to try 
and save himself He made no answer, and we Avere 
soon driven into the water ; he gave me directions how 
to manage in holding on to him so as to leave him as 
free in his motions as possible, I cannot dwell on this 
subject. In short, I became too much exhausted to hold 
on to him, when he held me with one hand and sus- 
tained us both. I .urged him to save himself, as I was 
sure he could not save both of us, but, said he, ' Captain? 
do 5'ou think I'll desert my best friend in such a place as 
this ? No, sir ! if you go down, we will go together.' 
When we were picked up I was insensible. I soon re- 
covered, but he never entirely recovered.* Now, William, 
you will have to wood up at Maiden, I suj)pose ? " 
" Yes, — can't possibly go to Detroit without, you know." 
When the boat, approached the wharf at the old town 
of Maiden, Canada West, Curtis and Bill were playing 
cards. Looking up, they saw that the boat was stopping. 



* The next summer I met this heroic colored man at Bennett's Temi^erance 
House in Buffalo. 



()2 SKETCHES OF TIFE 

and asked, " Where are we ? " The answer was, " We are 
going to take on wood at Maiden." " But this won't do," 
said Curtis, and he ran to find the Captain, To him he 
began to remonstrate in a violent manner, and Bill, 
meanwhile, was trying, by giving orders to the new 
hands, to prevent their landing ; " but," said Curtis, 
"you agreed to land me in Micliigan." 

Capt. — " I'll do so when we get into the river." 
Curtis. — " If you land here my niggers will escape," 
Capt — " I can't help that, we can't go without wood,'" 
Curtis. — " I'll give you a thousand dollars to land me 
and the niggers in Michigan." 

Capt. — " I can't do it without wood." 
Curtis. — " I shall hold you to your promise." 
Capt. — " Of course you will ; I'll land you, I did not 
l^romise to land your niggers." 

Curtis now began to swear and use brutal language, 
when Captain Titus told him to stop that or he would 
have him arrested as soon as they should touch the 
w^harf. 

George and Clara were among the hands at the gang- 
way, as they had been instructed by the mate, and when 
the plank was thrown out they ran into the town, Curtis 
and Bill after them, crying, " Stop, thief ! " in great ex- 
citement. If they had taken time to' think, they would 
not have ventvired on shore ; as it was, they were roughl}^ 
handled, and glad when they found shelter on the boat 
again. 

Some two years after, I was on a steamboat from De- 
troit to Cleveland ; we stopped at Maiden for wood, and 
while there I fell into conversation with an intelligent 
man, and inquired if he knew George and Clara, relating 
something of the above incidents. He said he knew 
them ; they were prospering in business and much 
respected. He said that he saw the chase in the streets^ 
and gave a very amusing account of the way the Ken- 
tucky gentlemen were handled. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 63 



CHAPTER IX. 

AN OLD-FASHIONED DEMOCRAT THE U. G. R. R. BUSINESS 

A MEANS OF POLITICAL CONVERSION. 

It often became necessary to obtain, on a sudden emer- 
gency, a considerable amount of funds in order to place 
large parties of fugitives beyond the power of the slave 
hunters. For that purpose certain individuals called on 
ladies and gentlemen, and stated the case without ever 
giving such information as could possibly betray the 
fugitives into any danger, and at such times men of all 
parties were solicited for aid. In pursuit of the aforesaid 
object, in the city of Albany, one of our solicitors called 
on an old gentleman who had long been, and was still, a 
leading man in the Democratic party. After hearing 
the statement, he said, " You want help to send these 
runaways to Canada, do you ? I shall give nothing for any 
micli purpose ! Don't you see that it is against the law ? 
Talk about human rights, human sympathies, self-evi- 
dent principles, ' liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; ' 
such talk may have been very well once, but it is differ- 
ent now. Why, here is your Whig President, (Fillmore,) 
and that party, you knoAV, claims to embody all the de- 
cency and all the religion in the nation — he would be 
down upon me with his fines and imprisonment, his 
marshals and his army. It is right to hold slaves, and 
wrong for them to run away. Here are ten dollars to help 
pay their passage hack ; give it to them, and advise them to 
go home and ask pardon for going off without leave, and 



64 SKETCHES OF. THE 

if any more of them come along and need help to go 
hom.e, don't fail to call on me — I like to help on a good 
cause." ■ 

That was many years ago, and many a ten-dollar bill 
did he give for the same object and with similar advice, 
still holding his standing good as a Democrat, until 
the Democratic party fired on the old flag at Sumtei-, 
since which time he has not been counted worthy of a 
name in the party ; for copperheads are not made of 
such men as he — indeed, I do not know a man from 
whom we ever received aid and comfort in this enter- 
prise, who is now in that party. 

There are now living within twenty miles of Fre- 
donia village, several men who were active agents on 
the U. G, R, R,, and voted the Democratic ticket up to 
1860, and others who had believed themselves Democrats 
" dyed in the wool," but had been converted from five to 
twent}^ years earlier just by the simple process of " taking 
stock " in this institution. I think I promised you some 
time ago that I would relate how a Democrat was con- 
verted in connection with the active business of the U. 
G. R. R., and as I once heard him relate the incident to 
a crowd of copperheads who had surrounded him in the 
town of Randolph, Cattaraugus Co., about the time that 
McClellan was nominated at Chicago, I will give it in 
his own language as near as I can recollect. The gen- 
tleman. Captain Chapman, I allude to, was a successful 
cultivator and dealer in fruits and garden vegetables, and 
being in Randolph one day with a load of fine fruit, his 
wagon was surrounded by a crowd of people of all 
classes, when a coppery old fellow remarked to the crowd 
that the fruit had a " niggery smell," and he didn't want 
any of it. Another man who had known him in his 
boyhood said, " Capt. C, you were brought up a Demo- 
crat of the straitest sect, and now you go for nigger 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. ' 65 

equality, nigger voting, and marrying niggers, of course 
that will come next. I would like to know iiow a son 
of 3'our father was ever turned over in this way." 

" Well," said the Captain, " I can tell you how I was 
converted, though I don't understand how j^our talk 
about ' niggers,' as- you • call them, has anything to do 
with the flavor of my fruit, or w^ith this question of 
maintaining our government when rebels are trying to 
destroy it ; but seeing you want to know wdiat's the mat- 
ter with me, I'll tell you. It is true, as you say, my 
father was a Democrat, and perhaps he supposed that to 
hate a negro and to be a Democrat was all one thing, — 
can't say as to that, never heard him say much on the 
subject, though I remember a feeling of that sort seemed 
to be common. When I was a boy I w^anted to go sail- 
ing on the lake, so father put me in care of Captain Per- 
kins, and I became a sailor. By the time I was t-wenty- 
two years of age I was in command of a vessel on Lake 
Erie. We stopped at Cleveland one night, and the wind 
being high, we anchored in the harbor, but about day- 
break the wind fell away and we started for Buffalo. 
When about three miles out, a boat wdth four men in it 
put off from the shore and came towards us with a white 
flag flying, so w^e hove to until the boat came alongside. 
Two of the men were merchants in Cleveland, with 
whom I-was well acquainted — had done business with 
them the day before ; one of them threw on board a 
purse, containing about $15 in silver, and said, ' Land 
these two men in Canada, take your pay out of that and 
give them wdiat is left.' The two men came aboard and 
the boat returned. 

" The men throw^n upon my hands were very black, 
coarse in feature and build, stupid in expression, and ap- 
parently incapable of any mental excitement except 
fear. They were frightened out of their wits if they ever 
9 



66 SKETCHES OF THE 

had any, and started involuntarily at every noise, but 
sat upon the deck and soon fell asleep. An hour or two 
after I saw a steamer coming out of Cleveland harbor, 
and when she had passed nearly a mile away, she turned 
and came toward us. I took my glass and looked at 
her, and saw a man with a glass scanning my vessel. 
After coming near enough to see distinctly all that was 
on my deck, they bore away on their course to Buffalo. 
I knew, of course, that these men were fugitive slaves, 
though they were the first that I had ever seen. I had 
heard it remarked that it was only the smartest niggers 
that ever got away, and thought I, if these are the 
smartest, what stupid animals the masses of the slaves 
must be ; although I have since seen many of them es- 
caping by the U. G, R. R., I still think these appeared 
the most stupid and degraded specimens I have ever 
seen. They would not talk, and seemed incapable of 
giving an intelligible account of their escape, or from 
whence they came, except that they had lived some- 
where in Virginia on a tobacco 23lantation, were sold and 
driven with a large coffle in chains to the Ohio River, 
and shipped for ' down river.' They left the boat and 
got ashore, were taken in charge by the agents of the U. 
G, R. R., though at the time I had never heard of that 
institution, and my vessel was pressed into the service, 
and constituted an ' extension of the track ' without my 
knowing it ; as to their progress after they landed in 
Ohio, I learned that afterwards. While they were on 
my vessel I felt little interest in them, and had no idea 
that the love of liberty as a part of man's nature was in 
the least possible degree felt or understood* by them. 
Before entering Buffalo harbor, I ran in near the Can- 
ada shore, manned a boat and landed them on the 
beach. I then handed to them the purse and all its 
contents, and told them that they were free. They 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 67 

said, 'Is this Canada?' I said, 'Yes, there are no 
slaves in this country ; ' then I witnessed a scene T 
shall never forget. They seemed to be transformed ; a 
new light shone in their eyes, their tongues were loosed. 
they laughed and cried, prayed and sang praises, fell 
upon the ground and kissed it over and over, embraced 
a tree and kissed it, hugged and kissed each other, cry- 
ing, ' Bress de Lord ! Oh ! I'se free before I die ! ' 

" I wish," said the Captain, " you could all have seen 
it ; there is no use trying to describe it, I can't do jus- 
tice to the subject. I left them and returned to my ves- 
sel, and Avhile returning I thought to myself, ' My God ! 
is it possible that human beings are kept in such a con- 
dition that they are made perfectly happy by being- 
landed and left alone in a strange land with no human 
beings or habitation in sight, with the prospect of 
never seeing a friend or relative, without a single bright 
spot or prospect in the future, except the single idea — 
Liberty ? And who is to blame ? ' Before I stepped 
upon my deck I had determined to never again be iden- 
tified with any party that sustained the system of 
slavery, and, gentlemen, it "is my opinion that there is 
not a copperhead rebel in this crowd who is as capable 
of appreciating the true principles of human liberty, and 
of enjo^nng the practical application of such principles 
as were those poor stupid slaves. Why, just look at the 
facts. The former masters of those slaves are your mas- 
ters. They call you ' mudsills,' subsisting by labor ; the 
best of you, if known to live by your own labor, even if 
it were only selling goods or teaching school, would not 
be allowed to sit at their tables, and if you travel into 
their territory you must padlock your jaws. And what 
is the result ? Have you accepted emancipation when 
offered ? for in the emancipation of the negro your own 
is secured. Do you accept it and rejoice in it ? Not a 



68 SKETCHES OF THE 

bit of it ; you would reject it if it were not forced upon 
you. While you sneer at and slander the negro for ac- 
cepting his freedom, you go down in the dirt and lick 
the heels of the men who trample on you, and tell you 
that labor degrades you, and then straighten yourselves 
up and judge of the right of a class of men to vote by 
the color of their skin, as if that were the only thing in 
which your claim to the right of suffrage would bear 
competition with theirs," 

The Captain had been interrupted two or three times, 
and a large crowd had gathered around him. He was 
about offering his fruit for sale again, when some one 
asked, "How about the man on the steamboat ? " " Well," 
said he, " before I was fairly fastened to the wharf two 
men came on board and asked to be shown ' where I had 
put those colored mei5 ? ' ' What colored men ? ' I re- 
plied. ' The niggers,' said one, ' that you brought from 
Cleveland.' 'There were no such men on this vessel 
when I left Cleveland,' I replied. ' I saw them,' he said, 
' from the steamer when we passed you, and I shall search 
the vessel.' 'Well,' I said, ' search it if you want to, you 
will find no such men on this craft.' 

" However, I thought, as a little excitement would be 
rather pleasant just then, I would tell him all about it, 
withholding the account of how they came on board, 
and I did tell him, not forgetting their conduct when 
they found they were free. The man turned pale, 
' trembled, grated his teeth, walked up and down the 
deck, and finally having recovered his voice, — he was so 
mad at first he could not speak — he shook his fist at me, 
keeping, however, at safe distance, and said, with horrid 
oaths, ' You shall suffer for this ! ' I said, ' Sir, it is not 
proper to speak in that manner to a Captain on his own 
ship.' He appeared to understand me, and left the ves- 
sel. I never heard from him again " 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 69 



CHAPTER X. 

TWO DEMOCRATIC NEIGHBORS VOTE FOR JAMES K. POLK 

AND HAVE A VISIT THE EVENING AFTER ELECTION 

THEY BECOME U. G. R. R, AGENTS — THE ESCAPE OF 
ROBERT. 

While waiting for a train at Perrysbargh, Cattaraugus 
Co., a few days ago, I met my old friend, Wm, Cooper, 
Esq. When I first knew him, Mr. Cooper was Supervisor 
of that town, and he was several times re-elected by the 
Democratic party ; indeed, he was the most influential 
Democrat in that part of the county, until in an un- 
guarded hour he became interested in the U. G, R.' R. 
He said, the other day, that he was terribly convicted 
the first time he heard a fugitive * relate his sufferings 
in slavery, and his adventures in making his escape. 
The wickedness and the danger of sustaining such a 
system, and the hypocrisy of the political parties, each of 
which strained every nerve to convince the South that 
the other was opposed to slaverj?^, convinced him that 
there was no choice between them on that question ; but 
at the next election he voted, as usual, the " Loco Foco " 
ticket. The election had been held at his house, (he 
kept a hotel,) and after the votes had been counted and 
the people had all gone home except a neighbor and 
fellow Democrat, he said, " Patch, I have voted for a 
slaveholder for President for the last time ; " and Patch 
answered, " So have I, but then what are we to do ? The 



* Samuel R. Ward; see Margaret and Samuel, Chapter XII. 



70 SKETCHES OF THE 

Whigs are as careful to have a slaveholder on their 
ticket as our party." " True," said Cooper, " but this 
new party, the Binwy Party, that polled but three votes 
in this town to-day, is destined to be successful. It may 
not succeed as a party, but the principles of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, as embodied in their platform 
will succeed. The people of this nation will not always 
he fooled by party demagogues, and one or the other of 
the leading parties will eventually adopt the radical 
principles of the men who fought England to secure 
liberty for all the people. We may have to fight again, 
but, sir, I tell you that whatever party leaders and un- 
principled politicians may do, the people will stand by 
the right, and when aroused to a sense of the condition 
to which we are drifting, parties and politicians must 
stand aside. Leading men in the South have an idea 
that the North will sul)mit^ to anything for peace, and 
acting upon that idea, they are in the habit of carrying- 
all their points by threatening to dissolve the Union and 
boasting of their fighting qualities, but they will lear-n 
that this universal Yankee nation, much as we like 
peace and money making, if a dirty, disagreeable job 
must be done, will astonish the world ]>y our manner of 
doing it." " Well," said Patch, " I was not aware that 
you had surrendered to these radicals. I had made up 
my mind to help whip the Whigs, for by so doing I 
should vote against a slaveholder as well as for one^ 
which I flatter myself would balance that account. I 
have noticed that in attacking this little party, finding 
nothing in their principles to which they can safely ob- 
ject, both the Whigs and Democrats charge them with 
radicalism. Radicalism, as I understand it, is a deter- 
mination to do right because it is right, and refusing to 
do wrong because it is wrong, while the Whigs and Dem- 
ocrats, by their own platforms, show that the conservat- 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. /i 

ism by which they propose to demoHsh each other, is 
merely going halves with the devil." 

That year business on the U. G, Road became very 
active, and both the above gentlemen became zealous 
agents. They had seen some service before, and that ex- 
plained in some measure " what was the matter." The 
first arrival at our station, direct from that of Captain 
Cooper, carae in charge of his son as conductor. The 
name of the fugitive, or the name by which he called 
himself, was Robert. He was evidently a very valuable 
man, and had escaped from a party of Congressmen on 
their way to Washington from Mississippi, one of whom 
w^as his master, and. as he said, his half brother. He es- 
caped from some point between Wheeling and Balti- 
more, and made his journey across Pennsylvania in a 
rambling way, suffering incredible hardships, hunger, 
and almost nakedness. His home had been so far from 
the Free States that he had never heard of this institu- 
tion, therefore he dared not apply for aid. When almost 
starved, he fell into the hands of one of our agents south 
of Jamestown, near the State line, thence came through 
Ellington, Leon, Dayton and Perrysburgh, arriving at 
<)ur station early in tbe evening. 

He had been so long wandering in the Pennsylvania 
mountains that we supposed the pursuit must, of course, 
have been abandoned, and this idea nearly proved fatal. 
The spies along the lake shore came near eluding the 
vigilance of our agents, and had established a strict 
watch at new points, but they were trapped by the pro- 
slavery conversation of one of our detectives, and the 
fact was disclosed that there was " danger." So close 
were the slave-hunters upon Robert's track that he was 
obliged to turn backward, and passed our place in the 
evening. The hunter, coming from the east, crossed the 
river into the village just about the time that Robert 



72 . SKETCHES OF THE 

disappeared south into the woods. One of our best 
guides was witli liim, and before the next morning de- 
livered him to Mr. Welles, in Leon. A few days after he 
was placed in the hands of a Quaker friend, named 
Hathaway, in Collins, Erie Co. In the meantime the 
hunter was spying around Forestville. The Quaker 
friend had a house in the woods, where during the sea- 
son he made maple sugar, and there Robert stayed un- 
til the hunters withdrew, when he went to Madison Co. 
He tried hard to learn to read and write, and succeeded 
partially, though he made slow progress. He used to 
say that when slavery was abolished, he would go back 
to Mississippi and preach to the colored people, and 
often expressed a wish to go to school and prepare him- 
self for mission work. He came back to Chautauqua 
Co. a year or two before the war, and worked at chopping 
wood one winter. He had heard nothing from his old 
home in many years, yet his faith was unshaken that he 
should go back a free man, and preach to the colored 
people there in the far south. When I last saw him, he 
spoke of going to the negro settlement in Canada as 
soon as he covild finish his job, since which I have not 
heard from him. 

The few incidents related in these sketches, much 
from memory, aided by very limited search among 
memoranda, read so tamely compared with the interest 
and excitement that was felt at the time, that they seem 
hardly worth relatinof', yet the liberation. of a single hu- 
man being from so wicked and loathsome a degradation 
as that of American slavery, is worth more than all the 
sacrifice it ever cost. But it should not be supposed that 
the rescue of here and there an individual from bond- 
age was the sole object proposed to be accomplished by 
the establishment of the U. G. R. R., and I think that 
when its history shall be understood, it will be known 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 73 

that it did more to hasten the crisis and final clash of 
arms that resulted in making this a free nation than any 
other agency. But for this, the fugitive slave law would 
not have been enacted, and but for that law, we should 
still have been under the heel of the slave oligarchy. 
Besides, in its silent operations it is wonderful how much 
humanity was sifted out of the old Democratic organiza- 
tion, leaving only Copperhead treason trying to shelter 
itself under the name of that old party. 



10 



74 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER XI. 

TRUE DEMOCRATS VERSUS COPPERHEADS— THE ESCAPE 
OF STATIE AND LILA — FROM WASHINGTON, D. C, TO 
•WARSAW, N, Y., IN A BOX PURSUERS FOILED. 

When Owen Lovejoy made his great speech on the 
bill to repeal the " black laws " of the State of Illinois, he 
denounced the fugitive slave law as not only wicked and 
unjust, unnatural and dangerous to the stability of a free 
government, but also mean and degrading, an outrage 
on every principle of humanity and religion. He en- 
dorsed the U. G. R. R. in all its principles, actions and 
results, and closed his speech by saying, " In so doing I 
accept the consequences of wicked legislation, and let it 
be known that Owen Lovejoy, of Princeton, Bureau Co., 
Illinois, will hold himself ready at all times to give ad- 
vice, food, shelter and aid in every possible way, in the 
pursuit of freedom, to any poor, panting fugitive from 
the horrors of American slavery, so help me Almighty 
God." 

It liad been announced that Lovejoy was to speak on 
the bill, and the State House at Springfield was crowded 
with ladies and gentlemen of all parties. When going 
home, a leading Democrat, holding one of the highest 
offices in the State, was leading by the hand his little 
daughter, his particular favorite, whom he had taken 
with him to hear Mr. Lovejoy 's speech. Having walked 
some distance without speaking, she said, " Is that man 
an abolitionist ? " " Yes," said he. " Well, papa, are you 
an abolitionist too ? " " Yes," he replied, " but I was such 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 75 

a d^ d (feeling the pressure of the soft little hand, ho 

felt admonished to skip the hard words, and hesitating a 
little, said), "I was such a fool that I didn't know it ! " 
The above incident was related to me by a man who was 
a member of the Legislature, was present and hoard t\w 
speech, and was acquainted witli all the parties, and it is 
mentioned here to show that men were sometimes Dem- 
ocrats who had none of the copperhead virus in them. Of 
this class was one of the principal actors in the sketch 
which follows : 

I was stopping over night in the village of Attica, 
Wyoming Co., N. Y., and while transacting business in 
the town I chanced to meet Col. Charles 0. Shepard, a 
very popular member of the State Senate, an active 
member of the liberty party, and one of the original 
stockholders in this institution. Mr. Shepard invited 
me to take breakfast with him, saying that he had some- 
thing he would like to show me. I accepted the invita- 
tion, and' after breakfast he showed me an U. G. R, R. 
car, in which two fugitives had come all the way from 
Washington, D. C. It was a box, made of light boards, 
to fit into a gardener's market wagon ; the forepart 
formed a seat, and the back part was high, so that a per- 
son could sit on the bottom, extending the feet forward 
under the driver's seat. In this box a woman and her 
daughter had, a few days before, arrived at his house 
from Washington without change of horses or driver. 

Some 22 years since, several farmers in Onondaga Co., 
having some money to invest, went to the District of 
Columbia and to counties in Virginia near Wasliington, 
and bought old, worn out farms at from -^5 to $15 per 
acre, and by the use of fertilizers and the application of 
their northern system of farming, they brought them 
into profitable cultivation. Three or four of these men 
were my school-mates when we were boys. They bought 



76 SKETCHES OF THE 

no slaves, but hired them of their masters to aid in cul- 
tivating the land, etc. A man by the name of Lines 
lived just over the line in Virginia, who owned more 
slaves than he could employ, therefore he hired them 
out, and the wages he received for their labor constituted 
his income, selling one occasionally to supply any defi- 
ciency. One of the women whom he thus robbed of the 
wages she earned, was a remarkably efficient house ser- 
vant, by the name of Static. Her master allowed her to 
hire herself out on condition that she paid him $10 per 
month, and also furnished clothing for her little daugh- 
ter, Lila, at that time about seven years of age. The 
mother and daughter were both nearly white. Statie 
hired herself for a year to one of the above named 
northern farmers, whose principal business was market 
gardening, and while she lived in the family as house 
servant, she was allowed the privilege of keeping her 
little girl with her for several weeks at a time. The 
little girl was of a sunny temper, very pretty, and both 
active and intelligent for one of her age, and the family 
of Mr. Barbour, with whom they lived, became attached 
to both the child and her mother. 

At the end of the year a hotel ^keeper in Washington, 
having heard of the superior qualification of Statie as a 
cook, off"ered her more wages, and as she was trying to 
lay by money to buy the freedom of her child, she went 
to live in Washington, and her child stayed on the plan- 
tation, some 10 miles off" in Virginia. Statie was allowed 
to go home once in three months to see her child and 
pay her wages to her master. On one of these occasions 
she learned that a slave trader had been trying to buy 
Lila, and her master had gone so far as to set a time 
when he would answer as to terms of sale. Statie, 
though in great distress, had sufficient presence of mind 
to conceal her feelings, and talked cheerfully to L. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 77 

when she paid him her quarter's wages, about the time 
Avhen she hoped to be able to buy Lila's freedom, a sub- 
ject that she seldom failed to allude to when paying 
money to her master. As it was two or three months 
before the trader would be there, and possibly realizing 
something of the cruelty he proposed inflicting on both 
mother and daughter, and softened by the receipt of her 
quarter's wages and her cheerful talk, he consented to 
let Lila go with her mother for a few weeks. Remem- 
bering the kindness of Mr. Barbour's family, she walked 
many miles out of her way in returning to Washington 
to lay her troubles before them. Barbour and his wife 
were shocked at the idea of their little favorite being 
sold away from her mother, and a plan was soon arran- 
ged, whereby Mr. Barbour met Statie late in the evening 
of the following Wednesday on a country road a mile or 
two outside of the city. Statie and her child were fixed 
comfortably in the aforesaid box, which had been sup- 
plied with straw, and as many conveniences as could be 
arranged. Barbour managed to get into Pennsylvania 
as soon as possible, but fearing pursuers, he kept them 
out of sight until they arrived in Wyoming Co., N. Y. 

When out of sight of settlements, they sometimes 
went out and picked berries, and when safe to do so they 
walked about in the night. He stopped at taverns or 
farm houses, leaving the wagon in the barn. The 
wagon was what is called in that country a " Jersey 
wagon," having six posts and covered with oil cloth. 
When inquired of as to the contents of the box he said 
he had been peddling clocks, and was going home to 
York State, and as he drove a splendid team his word 
was taken without examination. 

Knowing Col. S., not personally, but by reputation, as 
a safe agent of the U. G. R. R., he thought it best to take 
the fugitives to him ; therefore he came tljrough the 



78 SKETCHES OF THE 

mountain district of Pa., striking the State line near 
Wellsville, in Alleghany Co., went direct to Warsaw, and 
put up at a hotel, where he inquired if the landlord 
knew such a man as Col. C. O. Shepard. " Yes," said the 
landlord, " and he is here attending court." 

Static and Lila were then brought into the house and 
were warmly greeted by the crowd of people, it being the 
first time they had been seen, except by Mr. Barbour, 
since they left Washington. Col. S. took charge of them 
and asked the privilege of keeping the box in which 
they came as a relic, and Mr. Barbour went to his old 
home in Onondaga Co. 

No suspicion ever rested on Mr. Barbour in Virginia 
as to his agency in the escape of the fugitives. He had 
talked of going north about that time, and then his po- 
litical opinions were a sufficient guaranty. What he 
had seen of slavery had little effect upon his feelings 
and opinions, and he was regarded as pro-slavery as were 
all Democrats everywhere, but ho took an niterest in the 
fate of this poor child and her almost distracted mother, 
and determined to save them at all hazards. A few 
days' active service on the U. G. R. R proved too much 
for his prejudices, and Jiis vote never went in tJwt direction 
again. 

A few days after Col. S. came home, bringing the fu- 
gitives with him from Warsaw, two strangers rode up in 
front of the Post Office in the village of Attica, and in- 
quired if the Postmaster was within, judging, of course, 
that the Postmaster must be sound on the slave question. 
There were disappointed in not finding that official ready 
to aid them in reclaiming a fugitive. 

They were in pursuit of Static and her child. An ac- 
count of their arrival in Wyoming Co. had got into the 
local papers, by which means Lines had learned where 
they might probably be found, and employed these men 



UNDEEGEOUXD KAILKOAD. 79 

to capture them. The Postmaster took them into his 
office and told them plainly that the slaves were within 
half a mile of the village, " but," said he, " you had bet- 
ter not try to take them. I would be glad to help you if 
I dared to, but every man, woman and child in the place 
would help them, and you can't raise men enough in 
this county to take them away from here. I see by the 
commotion in the streets that you are suspected already, 
and I cannot answer for your safety if you should ever 
attempt to prosecute this business. Such a thing has 
never been attempted here, and I tell you it will go hard 
with the man that tries it. Now," said he, " I have noth- 
ing more to say on the subject, except that I should think 
fifteen or twenty minutes is as long a time as it will be 
safe for you to be seen in this town. A glance at the 
crowd already gathered in the street was sufficient to 
clinch the arguments of the Postmaster, so the slave 
hunters mounted their horses and rode silently out of 
town, the people making no demonstration until thej^ 
were on the bridge, when a shout, a cheer, three times 
three, seemed to put new life into their horses, and they 
were soon out of sight. In the office they threatened to 
return with force sufficient to execute their purpose, but 
they never came, though Col. S. thought best to send the 
fugitives into another part of the county, and their re- 
treat was for a long time kept secret. 

A gentleman who lives in Attica told me a few days ago 
that Lila still lives in Wyoming Co., a respectable, intelli- 
gent woman, but her mother died within two years after 
she came there. 



SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER XII. 

MARGARET BORN ON A SLAVE SHIP — CHILDHOOD IN A 

KIND FAMILY ANOTHER MASTER, WICKED, CRUEL, AND 

A COWARD HER HUSBAND SOLD AND SHE ESCAPES 

HUNTED WITH BLOOD-HOUNDS AND RESCUED BY A 

MASTIFF ARRIVES IN NEW YORK HER SON, SAMUEL 

R. WARD. 

On the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, in the State of 
Maryland, there lived, ahout forty years ago, a remark- 
" able woman by the name of Margaret. She was born on 
a slave ship on its way from Africa to Baltimore, just be- 
fore the importation of slaves was prohibited. She, 
with her mother, fell into the hands of a family who 
gave them religious instruction, and Margaret, while 
young, exhibited traits of character that were regarded 
as remarkable for one of her race. Of a proud, indomit- 
able spirit, yet having acute moral sense, a disposition 
naturally amiable, of cheerful temperament, and crushed 
with a sense of her degraded condition, she was unusu- 
ally capable in all kinds of housework, and especially ac- 
tive and competent as nurse when any of the family were 
sick. By observation she learned the polite manners 
and graceful deportment of ladies of the family and 
those who visited there. Her obedience to every com" 
mand, her kindness to any one who was in trouble, and 
polite deportment toward all, seemed to be the result of 
a conscientious desire to imitate her Saviour whom she 
had earlv learned to love. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 81 

At sixteen years of age she went to live with her 
young mistress, who was married to a phmter in that 
fertile country known "as the "Eastern Shore." At 
eighteen Margaret was a large woman, tall and well 
formed, her complexion black as jet, her countenance 
always pleasant, though she seldom laughed. She 
talked but little, even to those of her own race. At 
twenty years of age she became the wife of a worthy 
young man to whom she had given her best affections. , 
Not long after, her young master became very arLgi;^v 
with her for what he called stubbornness and resistance 
to his will, and threatened to chastise her by whipping — 
a degradation that she had always felt that she could 
not submit to, and yet to obey her master in the 
thing he demanded would be still worse. She therefore 
told him that she would not be whipped, she would 
rather die, and gave him warning that any attempt to 
execute his threat would sureh^ result in the death of one 
of them. He knew her too well to risk the experiment, 
and decided to punish her in another way. He sold her 
husband, and she saw him bound in chains and driven 
off with a large drove of men and women for the New 
Orleans market. He then put her in the hands of a 
brutal overseer, with directions to work her to the extent 
of her ability on a tobacco plantation, which command 
was enforced up to the da}^ of the birth of her child. At 
the end of one week she was driven again to the field 
and compelled to perform a full task, having at no time 
any abatement of her work on account of her situation, 
with the exception of one week. It was the custom on 
the plantations to establish nurseries, presided over by 
old, broken down slaves, where mothers might leave 
their infants during the work hours, but this privilege 
was denied to Margaret. She was obliged to leave her 
child under the shade of a bush in the field, returnmg 
11 



82 SKETCHES OF THE 

to it but twice during the long day. On returning to 
the child one evening she found it apparently senseless, 
exhausted with crying, and a large serpent lying across 
it. Although she felt that it would be better for both 
herself and child if it were dead, yet a mother's heart 
impelled her to make an effort to save it, and by caress- 
ing and careful handling she resuscitated it. 

As soon as she heard its feeble, wailing cry, she made 
a vow to deliver her boy from the cruel power of slavery 
or die in the attempt, and falling prostrate, she prayed 
for strength to perform her vow, and for grace and pati- 
ence to sustain her in her suffering, toil and hunger; 
then pressing her child to her bosom, she fled witli all 
the speed of which she was capable toward the North 
Star. Having gone a mile or two, she heard something 
pursuing her ; on looking round she saw Watch, the old 
house dog. Watch was a large mastiff", somew^hat old, 
and with him Margaret had ever been a favorite, and 
since she had been driven to the field. Watch often 
visited her at her cabin in the evening. She feared it 
would not be safe to allow Watch to go with her, but she 
could not induce him to go back, so she resumed her 
flight, accompanied by her faithful escort. At break of 
day 'she hid herself on the border of a plantation and 
soon fell asleep. 

Toward evening she was aroused by the noise made by 
the slaves returning to their quarters, and seeing an old 
woman lingering behind all the others, she called her, 
told her troubles and asked for food. The old woman 
returned about midnight with a pretty good supply of 
food, which Margaret divided with Watch, and then 
started on taking the north star for her guide. The 
second day after she left, the Overseer employed a hun- 
ter wath his dogs to find her. He started with an old 
slut and three whelps, thinking, no doubt, that as the 



UXDERGROUXD KAILltOAD. Od 

game was only a woman and her infant eliild, it would 
be a good time to train his pups. 

Margaret had been missed at roll call the morning 
after her flight, but the Overseer supposed slie was hid- 
ing near the place for a day or two, and that hunger 
would soon drive her up ; therefore, when the hunter 
started, he led the old dog, expecting to find her in an 
hour or two, but not overtaking her the first day, on the 
next morning he let his hounds loose, intending to fol- 
low on horseback, guided by their voices. About noon, 
the old dog struck the track at tlie place where Margaret 
had made her little camp the day before, and she 
bounded off with fresh vigor, leaving the man and the 
younger dogs beyond sight and hearing. The young- 
dogs soon lost the track where Margaret forded the 
streams, and the old dog was miles awa}', leaving the 
hunter without a guide to direct him. 

Margaret had been lying in the woods on the bank of 
a river, intending to start again as soon as it was dark, 
when she was startled by the whining and nervous mo- 
tions of old Watch, and listening, she heard the hoarse 
ringing bay of a blood-hound. Although she had ex- 
pected that she would be hunted with dogs, and recalled 
over and over again the shocking accounts related by 
Overseers to the slaves, of fugitives overtaken and torn 
in pieces by the savage Spanish blood-hounds, she had 
not, until now, realized the horrors of her situation. She 
expected to have to witness the destruction of her child 
b\' the savage brute, and then be torn in pieces herself 
She did not, however, lose her presence of mind. The 
river or inlet near her camp was too wide and too deep 
to be forded at that place, but she fastened her child to 
her shoulders and waded in as far as she could, taking a 
club to defend herself. Meanwhile, old Watch lay Mnth 
his nose between his feet, facing the coming foe. The 



84 SKETCHES OF THE 

hound, rendered more fierce by the freshness of the track, 
came rushing headlong with nose to the ground, scenting 
her prey, and seemed not to see old Watch, until, leaping 
to pass over him, she found her wind-pipe suddenly col- 
lapsed in the massive jaws of the old mastiff. The 
struggle was not very noisy, for Watch would not even 
growl, and the hound could not, but it was terribly en- 
ergetic. The hound made rapid and persuasive gestures 
with her paws and tail, but it was of no use, the jaws of 
old Watch relaxed not until all signs of life in his enemy 
had ceased. Margaret came back from the river, and 
would have embraced her faithful friend, but fearing 
that a stronger pack was following, she hastily threw the 
dead hound into the river and pursued her journey. 

It would make this sketch too long to relate all Mar- 
garet's adventures before she reached New York City, 
where she lived many years. Within a few hours after 
her providential escape by the aid of her faithful friend, 
old Watch, from the fangs of the slave hunter's hound, 
she fell into the hands of friends, who kept her secreted 
until she could be sent into a free State ; while there, 
she learned about the pursuit by the hunter, and that 
he never knew what became of his best hound. After 
the chase was abandoned, she, through a regular line, 
similar to our U. G. R. R., was sent to Philadelphia and 
then to New York, where she became a celebrated nurse, 
and always befriended the poor of all colors and all na- 
tionalities. She rented a good house which was a home 
for herself and boy, and also for old Watch while he 
lived. When her boy, whom she called Samuel, was old 
enough to go to school, she found a place for him in 
Westchester Co., where he obtained the rudiments of an 
education, and afterwards in the family of a gentleman 
in Central New York,^ he enjoyed the advantages of a 

* Gerritt Smith. 



UNDERGKOUXD RAILROAD 85 

thorough education, and became a devoted minister of 
the gospel in the Congregational Church. I often met 
him during the early history of the U. G. R. R., of which 
he was an efficient agent. Samuel was one of the most 
eloquent men I have ever heard speak. He was a fine 
looking man, though he w^as so black it was sometimes 
said that it grew dark when he entered a room ; but it 
grew light when he began to speak. 1 never saw' Mar- 
garet, but I have heard Samuel relate her sufferings and 
adventures, and describe her loving kindness to him and 
her self-sacrificing devotion to the interests of suffering 
humanity, in language and expression such as I never 
dare try to imitate. He was well informed, and knew 
the history of our country better than some men who 
make greater pretensions, in illustration of wdiich I will 
relate, as well as I can, an incident at which several 
ladies and gentlemen who witnessed it were much 
amused. 

It was at a time when a stirring political campaign ex- 
cited all classes. In a parlor at a hotel a man was giv- 
ing his opinions on political affairs in a voice loud 
enough for all in the room to hear. His theme was the 
abuse that the North had heaped upon the South. The 
man had been- introduced to gentlemen in the room as 

the Rev. Mr. , though one person told me that all the 

use he had made of his claim to the sacred office for 
thirty years had been to d'emand exemption from taxes 
on the ground of being a clergyman. He proceeded to 
eulogize the Southerners as a brave, noble, refined peo- 
ple, suffering untold abuse and calumn}^ from the whole 
North except his party ; it was a state of things not to 
be put up with much longer ; the slaveholders and their 
Democratic friends were going to settle the question with 
the bayonet ! " Well," said a gentleman from Vermont, 
to whom the discourse seemed to be directed," please tell 



86 SKETCHES OF THE 

US wherein we have abused our friends down South." 
" I'll tell you," said he, "here's this State of New York ; 
finding the climate and other things unfavorable to 
slavery, they passed a law abolishing it, to take effect in 
twenty years, for the purpose of giving time to run off 
all the slaves and sell them, so that when the time ar- 
rived, the slaves had all been sold, and now we are de- 
manding the liberation of the slaves for which we have 
pocketed the money." Samuel had stopped there for 
the night and sat by the table apparently reading, while 
he listened to the conversation. As the Vermonter 
made no answer, Samuel turned his face towards the 
reverend gentleman and said, " Are you not mistaken in 
relation to this matter? " The reverend -looked at him 
scornfully, as if he would decline talking with a black 
man, but as he liked to dispute better than he liked any- 
thing else except money and aristocracy, and no doubt 
expecting to wipe out the black spot, he said, " What do 
you know about it ? " "I know," replied Sam, " that not 
a slave was ever legallj^sold to be taken out of this State, 
or taken out of the State to be sold, after the passage of 
the law abolishing slavery. The law itself made it a 
penal offense to do so, and even a Congressman could 
not take his slave servant to Washington without giving 
bonds of |1,000 to return him to this State. No, sir, the 
slaves were not sold out of the State ! " The statement 
was made in such a prompt, downright manner, that 

Rev. dared not dispute it, but went on to say that 

"Massachusetts was less particular in her legislation. 
After realizing cash for every slave owned in the State, 
they are arrogantly demanding freedom for the same 
and all the rest of the slaves, and making more disturb- 
ance than all the other States put together." 

" Begging your pardon," said Sam, " I wish to say that 
you were pointed out to me as the man who owns the 



UXDERGROUXD RAILROAD. «7 

b est library in this County. Most surely, sir, you have 
read history to little purpose if you do not know that 
slavery was not abolished in Massachusetts by legisla- 
tion, and that not an hour was allowed those who held 
slaves in that State in which they might sell or run 
them off." " This is a precious piece of nonsense you 
are relating," said , " who does not know that Massa- 
chusetts was once a slave State, and that it is now one of 
the free States ? " " True," said Samuel, " but there was 
no gradual emancipation nor selling of slaves, and there 
was no legislation about it. When Massachusetts be- 
came a State, and the people of the State adopted a con- 
stitution, the preamble, or, as they called it, their bill of 
rights, was copied almost verbatim from the preamble of 
the Declaration of Independence, which declares, briefly, 
that all men have equal rights, and have equal right to 
protection in the enjoyment thereof. As soon as the 
constitution was adopted by the people, a gentleman re- 
siding in Hampden Co., who could not have been a 
Democrat of j-our stamp, though he held nine or ten 
slaves, said to his foreman, a very intelligent slave, 
" Thomas, I think you are legally entitled to freedom. I 
have thought about it a long time, especially since we 
have declared our independence, and are sacrificing 
thousands of lives and millions of property in defense of 
the principles that we publish to the world as our excuse 
for so doing ; and now our State having embodied the 
same principle into the constitution as the fundamental 
law of the State, you are as much entitled to freedom as 
I am. To test this question, I wish you to employ coun- 
sel and bring a suit against me in the Supreme Court for 
illegal!}^ holding you in slavery, urging your claim un- 
der the bill of rights in the constitution. You will need 
money to retain a lawyer, and here are a hundred dol- 
lars which you can use for that purpose." I need not 



88 SKETCHES OF THE 

relate the proceedings in detail — if you desire to know 
the history of emancipation in Massachusetts, you can, 
no doubt, find it in your library. I will only say, to 
substantiate my first statement, that the suit was com- 
menced and carried through to the highest court, and 
decided every time in favor of Thomas, his master pay- 
ing all costs and counsel fees. When it had been 
decided in the last court, the Governor of the State made 
proclamation that all persons heretofore held as slaves in 
Massachusetts were free, and warned all persons against 
buying or selling, or in any way treating them as slaves, 
and guaranteed to them all the rights of citizens of the 
State, since which time people in that State transact all 
kinds of business without question as to the color of their 
skin. For the rest, as to how the people north and south 
treat each other, and the position they occupy before the 
world in regard to education, refinement, enterprise and 
Christian civilization, I respectfully refer you to the de- 
bate between Webster and Hayne, which, of course, may 
be found in your library." 

I have met but once since, and that was in 1863, 

when he was holding forth to a crowd on the beauties of 
the southern system of labor, southern refinement, etc., 
and predicting that after they had thrashed us at the 
North, there would be some hope of our improvement. 
The last I heard of Samuel he went to England, and was 
sent by the government on a mission of some kind to 
Jamaica, W. I. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 89 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ESCAPE OF JIM AND HIS COMPANIONS — NIGHT MEET- 
INGS AMONG THE SLAVES AN ANGRY SOUTHERNER IN 

FKEDONIA. 

Three fugitives arrived at our station about 8 o'clock 
one night in January, 18 — . They came in a sleigh, 
covered with robes and blankets so that no person was 
to be seen. The load had the appearance of a load of 
grain protected from the snow on a stormy day. They 
had been pushed forward from Painesville, Ohio, in a 
very secret way, changing conductors every day, or at 
midnight, as was the case sometimes ; the conductor 
who brought them to our place had started in the after- 
noon, and had driven twenty miles through the drifting 
snow. As the night was dark and the road toward 
Black Rock not well beaten, we thought we might ven- 
ture to wait until five o'clock in the morning before we 
sent them forward. They had been obliged to deviate 
from the most direct line two or three times, being 
closely chased by an experienced hunter who had 
" bought them running," or at his own risk. Our detec- 
tives had misled the fellow, and although we hoped 
he had become discouraged and gone home, we deter- 
mined to be careful, and it was well we did. 

Rev. Mr. Frink was in our village that evening on a 
visit to his brother who lived there. Mr. Frink kept a 
station on the U. G. R. R., in Chautauqua Co., therefore 
I invited him to have a talk with the fugitives, and also 
to give us the benefit of his counsel about getting them 
12 



90 SKETCHES OF THE 

through. One of the boys, named Jim, gave us an in- 
teresting account of their adventures. He was a shrewd 
fellow", and had not intended to run away until the day 
they started, when he decided to come for the sake of the 
other two, for, said he, " They couldn't come without me, 
they didn't know how." They were his particular 
friends ; he thought a " heap " of them, and their mother 
had learned that they were to be sent South in a drove 
soon after Christmas, The two boys had always been 
kept on the plantation, had seldom been beyond its 
boundaries, while he (Jim) had been a kind of sub-over, 
seer, had been sent to market to assist in driving mules, 
sometimes had charge of a gang of hands, and was 
therefore more competent to " find the way out " than 
the other boj^s were, and was finally persuaded by their 
old mother to go with them. 

They had been provided with passes to spend Christ- 
mas with their relatives on another plantation, but hop- 
ing to find friends in another direction, they started 
towards the Ohio River, sixty miles off. The Christmas 
festivities, which were being celebrated by the slaves on 
all the plantations, enabled them to supply themselves 
with food and shelter at the slave quarters along the 
way. The weather was unusually cold, and they ex- 
pected trouble in. crossing the Ohio, but when they 
arrived at the river, above Parkersburg, in A^irginia, 
they found it frozen over — very unconstitutional be- 
havior, certainly, on the part of the river, but as their 
education had been neglected, it could not be expected 
that the poor fellows would know that it would be wrong 
for them to avail themselves of the illegal acts of the 
Ohio River, so they crossed over on the ice. Never hav- 
ing heard of the U. G, R. R., they had skulked and 
stumbled along half the way to Lake Erie before they 
fell into the hands of our agents. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. ' 01 

The first hint that our folks received in relation 
to them came from the hunters who followed them_ 
They had crossed over into Ohio and begun inquiring 
for them, when one fell into the company of one of our 
detectives, who, pretending to sympathize with the 
scamp, agreed to do what he could to find the track, 
though I am not sure that he promised to show it to him 
when he found it. It was soon known in all directions 
b}" our agents and conductors that there was " game 
abroad and hunters close upon the track," and as they 
knew the run-ways better than the hunters from Vir- 
ginia, they ?oon had the boys under their protection. 
Judge Paine m northern Ohio, one of our most enter- 
prising Superintendents, directed their movements, and 
it required all his tact and energy to run them through. 

When they had related their adventures and hair- 
breadth escapes, Rev. Mr. Frink said, " Jim, you told us 
that you had not intended to come away till you were 
persuaded to help the boys ; now I want to know the 
reason why you preferred slavery to freedom, when these 
boys, who evidently do not know half as much as you 
do, were willing to risk their, lives to obtain liberty." 
" That's it," said Jim, " that's the very thing. They don't 
know. Some don't know and some does. Niggers tha,t 
know isn't all alike ; there is two sorts ; some is afraid 
and they run off as soon as they can, others are not 
afraid and they will stick by their people." " You say," 
said Mr. Frink, " that some know and some don't know. 
What do you mean by that?" "Well," said Jim, " it 
may be you have heard of Nat Turner and his insurrec- 
tion." "Yes," said Mr. Frink. " Well," said .Jim, "some 
of the slaves know all about that, and they talk about it 
all over Virginia, and Kentucky, and Car'lina, and 
everywhere. They have meetings in the night ; they 
o-o this wav and that wav, and tell what is going on 



92 SKETCHES OF THE 

everywhere ; so you see we agree which way is best. We 
think Nat Turner was a good man, but he couldn't do 
much to make us all free, though he scared the white 
folks awfully. Then they hung Nat Turner, and them 
that know, say it is best not to try that way again. We 
hear that a great many white folks are trying to make 
us all free, and our masters say they will have war and 
whip the Yankees, and some of us agree to stay and may- 
be we can do something to help." " How did you hear 
all this?" said Frink. " Well," said Jim, "when they 
make a President, and the Democrats have a barbecue, 
and make great speeches and talk big, they say the 
Whigs are going to free all our niggers, and the Whigs 
have a barbecue and talk big, and say the Democrats are 
going to free all the niggers, and more than that, they 
are going to burn their hams. Now, you see, when old 
master goes to barbecue, he takes servants along to see 
to the horses and take care of the old man when he gets 
drunk, and of course they hear it all, and when we have 
a meeting they tell all about it. We can't understand 
what it all means, but one thing is sure, they get madder 
and madder every time, and when they come to blows, I 
always intended to help the side that would help us, 
whichever that was." 

As Jim appeared to understand about those " meetings 
in the night " better than any other we had met, we 
talked with him until we learned where and through 
whom we could communicate with the knowing ones, 
and not long after we were able to make connections 
and open lines far down in the slave States. The lead- 
ers of the meetings in the night, meanwhile, were being 
educated as to who their friends were, and the first gun 
on Sumter was the signal for an entire change in the 
operations of the U. G. R. R, and those who had been helped 
became the helpers. The experienced agents and conduct- 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 93 

ors, black though they were, piloted many a white 
soldier, escaped from Andersonville, Belle Isle, and 
Libby prison, through swamps and mountain passes to 
the Union lines, thus repaying all the time and treasure 
that had been expended in their behalf by this institu- 
tion. Indeed, for this service, this branch of the U. G. 
R. R., with negro conductors, was more efficient than 
any red tape or militarj^ organization could have been 
made, as multitudes of escaped prisoners gratefully 
testify. 

A few weeks after this I was reminded of what Jim 
said about those meetings in the night, by. reading in 
one of our popular magazines an incident related by a 
slaveholder to a gentleman who was visiting at his plan- 
tation in the sea island cotton region. The slaveholder, 
whose name was Poindexter, said to his friend, Mr. Hill, 
" I am exceedingly perplexed about what coui-se to pur- 
sue in relation to my negroes. I was surprised, and not 
a little amused, by what I saw last night. My boy Tom 
oversees all my hands on this plantation, is the best 
manager in the county, makes the best crops with the 
least trouble ; he never whips, and there is no skulking 
and no sham sickness. He is a Baptist preacher, and all 
the slaves for miles around come every Sunday to hear 
him preach. There is, as Tom says, ' a powerful revi- 
val ' in these parts, and he has many times during the 
past month asked for a pass to go to an island near at 
hand to hold a meeting in the night, and as he is always 
on hand in the morning, I usually let him go. Having 
noticed an unusual sadness in Tom's countenance of 
late, and other things in his deportment that seemed 
peculiar, my curiosity was excited, and I concluded to 
follow him last night to witness his manner of holding 
his meeting. He crossed the narrow inlet to the island 
on the trunk of a fallen tree, and instead of going to- 



94 SKETCHES OF THE 

wards the plantation he struck into a narrow path lead- 
ing through thick bushes towards a dense forest. I 
managed to follow him nearly half a mile into the 
woods, when I saw the light of a large tire shining on 
the tall trees. A few men were sitting around on logs, 
and others constantly coming, but no women or child- 
ren. I hid myself near the cleared spot and waited un- 
til almost midnight, when I saw a man approach the 
fire towards whom the negroes (as many as a hundred 
had arrived), showed a marked respect. He immedi- 
ately stepped on to a stump and commenced a speech, 
having first called on Tom to say if any spies were 
about. Tom's answer being satisfactory, he said, ' I 
have come a long way to-night to hear your decision. 
Tom, we will hear from you.' 

" Tom came forward and said in a firm voice, ' I can- 
not comsent to this rising. It can do no good. True, 
word comes all the way from Virginia and Missouri that 
if we will commence here where there are few white 
folks, we can make a good start, and soon an army will 
fill the land and nothing can stand before us ; but, my 
friends, it isn't so. We can do nothing to better our 
condition ;' and after repeating a part of the Sermon on 
the Mount he sat down. 

" Then the stranger came forward. He was very 
black, his face shone in the light of the fire. He stood 
like a statue, his eyes turned towards the heavens for so 
long a time that the silence seemed painful. Then the 
tears started from his eyes ; he commenced in low, musi- 
cal tones, ' It's all over, no man will stand by me ! God 
help us ! ' He then began to speak of the injustice of 
slavery, the cruelties, the licentiousness, the degradation, 
and such impassioned eloquence I never heard from any 
man as he exhibited when in his final appeal he called 
upon them to avenge themselves even though there 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 95 

were no hopes of success. He then walked away in an- 
other direction from whence he came. 

" When he was gone, Tom arose and said, ' Vengeance 
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. I hear that a great 
many white people pray that God will come down and 
deliver us, and he will come sure. Let us pray.'. They 
all knelt while Tom prayed, not for the destruction of 
their enemies, but that they might repent and deliver 
the poor slaves from bondage. I came away before he 
closed his prayer." 

The next morning, about two hours before daylight* 
our train crossed the Cattaraugus creek on the ice, carry- 
ing Jim and his companions towards Canada. Mr. 
Frink was up and saw the fugitives start, and about sun- 
»rise he left for home. When passing a watering trough 
at the west end of the village, a man was there letting 
his horse drink. The man spoke to Mr. Frink, and said, 
" Do you live here, sir ? " " No," said Mr. Frink, " Are 
you acquainted about here ? " " Yes," replied Mr. Frink. 
*' Well, can you tell me if there are any abolitionists in 
this town ? " " There may be," said Mr. Frink, " though 
I could hardly tell who they are. My brother says, ' we 
are all Democrats here.' " Mr. Frink had mistrusted the 
fellow at first sight, and the slave catcher, for it was he, 
thought, no doubt, that Frink was not an abolitionist, 
else he would know more about it than he seemed to, so 
he told his business and offered to pay him handsomely 
if he would help find the fugitives. " Which way did 
you come?" said Frink. "From the village of Fre- 
donia," was the reply. " I hired this horse there, and 
supposed I was on the right track, but have not been 
able to trace the fugitives anywhere tliis side of that 
town." 

" Did you call on Dr. J. Pettit ? " 

" No : where does he live ?" 



96 SKETCHES OF THE 

" Just out of town, about a mile from where you got 
your horse. He is a man that would interest himself in 
your affairs, and could obtain for you more information 
than all the rest of the people between here and his 
place." 

After getting particular directions so as to find the 
Doctor's place, the slave hunter thanked Mr. Frink, 
turned about and drove with all speed, but it was noon 
when he reined up in front of the said Doctor's house. 
He was soon seated by the hospitable old fire-place, and 
without waiting to get warm he made his business 
known, and asked if the Doctor could ascertain and let 
him know anything about where to look for the fugi- 
tives ; " for," said he, "I traced them to a place a mile or 
two west of here, since which I can hear nothing about 
them." The Doctor was some time getting a full des- 
cription of them and then said, " I think I know pretty 
near where they are noiv." " Well," said he, brightening 
up, " you will do me a great favor," " Well," said the 
Doctor, " they left here about noon yesterday, and I cal- 
culate they are crossing the river at Black Rock about 
this time." " Ah ! ah ! that is the kind of information 
you are so well prepared to give." The scene closed with 
some tall Southern profanity, which was cut short by a 
request from the lady of the house ; she desired him to 
warm himself as soon as possible and retire, for she did 
not like to have the children listen to such language. 

By the next stage he went to Buffalo, but he was too 
late, Jim and the boys w^ere safe under the protection 
of the British Lion. 

Jim and his companions were brought from Westfield 
in a sleigh drawn by Mr, Knowlton's splendid team. 
They turned off the main road on the West Hill in Fre- 
donia, and changed cars at Dr. F's station in Cordova. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BLACKSMITH HENRY WORKS HIS WAY FROM NEW OR- 
LEANS TO BALTIMORE WRITES HIS OWN PASS AND GETS 

ON TO SPRINGVILLE, N, Y. FALLS INTO GOOD HANDS 

AND GETS SAFELY THROUGH — SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS 

EARLY LIFE A CHRISTIAN LADY IN KENTUCKY A 

PREACHER IN A TIGHT PLACE. 

Not many years ago I spent a Sabbath in Spring- 
ville, Erie Co., N. Y., where I met an old friend, Deacon 

E , a zealous worker in the interest of the U. G. R. R. 

He recalled the case of Henry Rankin, as one of the 
most interesting fugitives who ever came this way. 
Henry had been a slave in Kentucky and was a good 
blacksmith ; his master allowed him to find work for 
himself by paying |30 per month for his time. His 
master had also agreed to emancipate Henry on the 
payment of $1,500 out of his extra earnings. Henry 
paid the stipulated sum, |30, at the close of every month, 
and on Christmas day he paid over to his master all the 
money he had left of his extra wages after paying for a 
good plain suit of clothes with which to commence the 
new year. Henry was a strong man and an excellent 
mechanic, and found time after the close of work hours 
to devote to the acquisition of an education. He became 
a good reader and writer, and thoroughly understood all 
the rules in the common arithmetic ; he read his bible 
histories and such other useful books as he could pro- 
cure. 
13 



98 SKETCHES OF THE 

When Henry was twenty-eight years old, he had paid 
nearly the whole of the stipulated sum to his master and 
was anxiously looking forward to the next Christmas as 
the day on which he was to have his free papers, but be- 
fore that day the old man died, and as, by the laws oi 
tlie State of Kentucky, no contract made with or by a 
slave was valid, the heirs refused to acknowledge 
Henry's claim, although he was prepared to pay the 
small balance due. They also seized him and sent him 
to the New Orleans market where such mechanics as he 
was would sell for from $3,000 to $5,000. 

It was a hard case for poor Henry, but he never gave 
up the hope of obtaining his freedom, and watching his 
opportunity he managed to escape on a vessel, on which 
he had worked making repairs at New Orleans, When 
the ship was in the Gulf of Mexico, four or five days out, 
he was discovered on board. The captain and crew re- 
spected him for his industry and good behavior as well 
as for his excellent workmanship as a mechanic ; there- 
fore they did not betray him at Baltimore where they 
landed him, but gave him as good counsel as they could 
in relation to his best route to Canada. He liad some 
money, and providing himself with a pass written by 
himself, he left Baltimore and traveled sometimes in the 
day and sometimes in the night until he came into this 
State, near Bradford, Pa. Passing the Alleghany Reser- 
vation, near Great Valley, thence by the way of EUicott- 
ville, he arrived at Springville one evening and went 
into a hotel. There was some kind of a gathering there 
and the bar-room was full of men, so Henry went to the 
landlord and said, " Please, sir, can you tell me, is there 
a praying Christian about here ? " " Yes," said the 
landlord, "there is one just around the corner." 

" Here, George, show this man where Deacon E 

lives." 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 99 

The Deacon was the first man to whom Henry had 
confided his history since he left the ship in Baltimore. 
He landed safely in Canada, since which we have no ac- 
count of him, but we have no fears as to his conduct and 
success as a citizen of his adopted country. Henry es- 
caped from slavery about the time the U. G. R. R. was 
first organized, and before the lines were all arranged^ 
hence he worked his wa}^ without aid until he ari'ived 
almost in sight of Canada. 

The New York Tribune quoted from the Mobile Sunday 
Times of July 12tb, 1868, an article in which the editor, 
a rebel Democrat, made the following admission : " The 
negro population, who are easily led away by novelty 
and excitement, and extravagant promises, are very quid: 
to perceive ichcre their vital interests lie, and to return to the 
path of common sense when they make the discovery." 
On reading the above article one morning, I was re- 
minded of a conversation I had with a gentleman in 
Carlisle, Nicholas Co., Kentucky, which directly corrobo- 
rated Henry's story. I had stopped one evening at the 
hotel in said town ; at the table a gentleman sat oppo- 
site to me whose face and voice seemed familiar. After 
dinner he came into the public room and sat down near 
to us, (my brother was with me) and said, " Gentlemen, 
you are from the North. May I ask what State ? " 
" New York," I answered " Ah ! " said he, " I thought 
so ; from the town of Fabius, Onondaga Co. I was sure 
I had seen you before ; your name is Pettit." " Yes," said 
I, "and you are Frank Chapel, of Pompe}'. You taught 
the school in our town when I was a boy." After cordial 
greeting and congratulations on having met each other 
so far away from the scenes of our boyhood, he invited 
us to meet him at his office in the evening. 

Chapel had studied law and gone to Kentucky some 
ten years previous to the time I met him. His talents. 



100 SKETCHES OF THE 

general manners and brilliant conversational powers had 
drawn about him troops of friends and a thriving busi- 
ness. In the evening we fell into conversation on the 
manners, customs and institutions peculiar to that coun- 
try, the marked distinction between the wealthy and the 
slave-holding classes, and the poor class of whites, and 
the influence of their system of slave labor in producing 
these distinctions. He related much of what he had 
witnessed and heard himself, but nothing amused and 
interested us so much as what he told us of the experi- 
ence and adventures of a young clergyman with whom 
he fell in company at Pittsburgh, Pa. He was going to 
Cynthiana, Ky., where he was expecting to settle. They 
traveled together and became not only acquainted, but 
interested in each other's success, just entering, as they 
both were, into society so ditferent from that in which 
they had been educated. On the subject of slavery they 
had never thought or cared much, but they had an im- 
pression that negroes were created expressly for slaves ; 
that as to their capacity' for the attainment of knowledge 
and science and the enjoyment of civilized life and 
social comforts and pleasures, there was no comparison 
between them and even the most ignorant and degraded 
of the white race. Therefore, they argued that slavery 
was the normal condition of the negro. 

Although Cynthiana is not more than twenty-five 
miles from Carlisle, it so happened that Cliapel and Rev. 
Mr. Piatt, the clergyman above mentioned, did not meet 
until about a year after they came together into the 
State. Chapel was attending court in Harrison Co., of 
which Cynthiana is the county seat, and called on Mr. 
Piatt to renew their acquaintance. He met with a cor- 
dial reception, and was invited to spend his evenings 
with the reverend gentleman. In the course of the 
evening Chapel said, "Mr. Piatt, how does this slave 



UNDEKGROUND RAILROAD 101 

question affect you ? It is a matter of no small moment, 
at least I find it so." "Well," said Piatt, "I'll tell you 
I had my eye teeth cut on that question the day I ar- 
rived here. You see I had letters of introduction to Mr. 
Hamilton, a planter (or farmer as he said) living two 
miles from town. I went immediately to his jilace, was 
cordialh- entertained by the ladies of the family, but Mr. 
Hamilton was not then at home. Mrs. Hamilton said, 
' you will please make this your home until he return?, 
which will be in three or four days.' I soon discovered 
that Mrs. Hamilton was a lady of superior talents, re- 
finement and education, a devoted Christian, while m 
her conversation that which you would notice first was 
her sound common sense and conscientious honesty of 
purpose. In the afternoon the ladies, except Mrs. Ham- 
ilton, had gone out for a ride, and there were only ]\Irs. 
Hamilton and the small children with me in the parlor. 
The common topics of conversation being exhausted and 
having seen some slaves about the house, I thought it 
might be a good time to place myself on the right sort of 
a platform on the slave question, inasmuch as I came 
from Massachusetts, where, in some sections of the State, 
the subject was being agitated. (This was soon after the 
beginning of the agitation and before the fugitive slave 
law was thought of) What I said I cannot remember, 
for what followed obliterated from my mind not only 
the language I used, V)ut the sentiment that my words 
expressed. I only recollect that I desired to make Mrs. 
Hamilton understand that I fully appreciated the beau- 
tiful arrangement of Providence in creating a people 
capable of appreciating the social comforts and intellect- 
ual enjoyments of our advanced civilization, with the 
hopes and the happiness of the Christian i-eligion, and 
in relieving us of the labor necessarily attendant upon 
such a state of things by giving us posses.sion of a race 



102 SKETCHES OF THE 

of beings not only incapable of such enjoyments, but 
whose minds and bodies were exactly adapted to the 
performance of the labor and drudgery needed by us. I 
am not sure that I had any doubt as to the truth of all 
this, until on looking up I saw depicted on her counte- 
nance grief, astonishment and disgust all combined. It 
was now my turn to be astonished. I had intended to 
close with a peroration upon the curse of Canaan, but that 
was all lost, A glance of her eye paralyzed my tongue. 
I wished to apologize, but could not do even that. There 
was silence, and I suffered more in five minutes than I 
can describe. I thought I saw in her countenance all 
kinds of emotion, until finally that of pity seemed to 
predominate. 

"Mrs. Hamilton was, I judge, about the age of m}^ 
mother," said Piatt, "and in person, voice and express- 
ion, commanding the vitmost respect. I have never 
been able to account for my folly in being so forward in 
the expression of sentiments that I did not understand, 
nor did I know whether I believed them or not. After 
a most painful silence, she was the first to speak, and 
said, ' My dear sir, when I heard that you were coming 
here from a New England home, I did hope and expect 
to hear from you sentiments very different from those 
you have just expressed. Yet, if such is your view of 
things on this subject, I am glad to know it now and to 
have the opportunity to give such advice as a mother 
might venture to give her son. People from the North 
are never under a greater mistake than when they sup- 
pose that they command the respect of slaveholders by 
advocating principles such as I have just listened to. 
Had my husband heard what you have said to me, he 
might, from courtesy or motives of policy, have seemed 
to coincide with your views in some measure, but his 
feelings towards you would have been characterized with 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 103 

the utmost contempt. You will pardon me, sir, for in 
this plain speaking I put it more mild than the case will 
warrant. Mr. Hamilton is a man of the world, a slave- 
holder, and while he regrets the existence of slavery, he 
says no way has 3'et been devised by which we can be rid 
of it, and I doubt not he likes to hear Northern men 
talk as you do sometimes, for thereby he knows that, po- 
litically, the South gets the advantage of the North. 

" ' As to the capacity of the negroes, I will relate what 
I heard Mr. Hamilton say, in conversation with a neigh- 
bor on the subject of repealing the laws that prohibit 
their education. The man pretended to believe as you 
have said, that they are too ignorant and stupid to learn 
if they had a chance. My husband said in answer^ 
' They are ignorant of course ; our laws have made them 
so, and keep the most of them in that condition ; but if 
they are too stupid to avail themselves of a chance for 
improvement, what is the use of making laws to prevent 
them from getting an education? No sir; I tell you they 
have intellects naturally as bright as the white race. 
Indeed, the whole mass of slaves in Kentucky, with all 
their disabilities as to education, the degradation and 
oppression necessarily attending their condition, are, in 
point of intellect, ahead of the poor whites that are 
scattered all over the slave States, a disgrace to our civi- 
lization; yet each white man holds a vote of equal power 
with the proudest aristocrat in the nation. If the slaves 
were set free, and I wish to God they were, and placed on 
an equal footing with the class I spoke of, tlie black^ 
would start with a bound on the race of improvement, 
outstripping the poor whites in the race. I will give you 
a practical illustration : 

" ' The State of Kentucky passed a school law and cre- 
ated a fund for this class of white children, but they 
never availed themselves of it. Not a common school- 



104 SKETCHES OF THE 

house has been built because they never asked for one, 
and finally the school fund was appropriated to other 
objects ; whereas, not only the law makes it a penal 
offense to teach a negro, free or slave, to read, but subjects 
the negro to a public whipping for trying to learn ; yet 
there are more slaves in this county who can read and 
write than there are of that class of whites. Yes sir, if 
made free to-day, the blacks would use the elective fran- 
chise more intelligently than they. Why sir,' said he, 
becoming excited by his own talk, 'there are ten men in 
the legislature of this State that are not as capable of 
making laws for the government of the State as my Ben 
is. His education is better than theirs — the Lord knows 
how he obtained it — and he has better common sense ; 
and Rankin, there is your blacksmith Henry. Where can 
you find a better mechanic, or a man better fitted to dis- 
charge the duties of a free citizen than he is ? ' 

" ' I give you this,' said Piatt, ' as the substance of what 
she said, in a conversation in wdiich I took some pari' 

'• I have only to add," said Chapel, " that my observa- 
tion corroborates all the sentiments expressed by Mrs 
and Mr. Hamilton, and," said he, " I believe that nearly 
all the better portion of the people hold similar opinions, 
though few will speak as freely on the subject as did 
Mrs. Hamilton. Flatt was thoroughly cured of his 
toadyism." 

From Carlisle we went to Cynthiana, where it was our 
good fortune to become acquainted with Mr. Hamilton, 
and we accepted his invitation to visit him at his home. 
He had buried his good wife some years before, but he 
wished to introduce us to his son. The father and son 
were both enthusiastic admirers of Northern institutions, 
especially our common schools, internal improvements 
and free labor, and said that Kentucky needed only 
these to make it the paradise of the United States. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 105 



CHAPTER XY. 

JOE AND ROSA SOLD THE ESCAPE THEY REACH THE 

SOUTHERN TERMINUS OF U. G. R. R, DANGER SIG- 
NALS THE QUAKER FRIEND — ^TIIE MASTER ON THE 

TRACK — OUTWITTED BY THE QUAKER SAFE IN WIL- 

BERFORCE COLONY. 

In the Shenandoali ^"alley, near the Bkie Ridge, two 
slaves, a man and his wife, sat talking late in the even- 
ing. They were in trouble, and knew not what to do, 
and there was not a being on earth to whom the}'- dared 
to apj)ly for counsel. Both Avept and both offered a 
silent prayer to Him whose ear is ever open to the cry 
of the poor. Finalh^ the man aroused himself and spoke 
in low, earnest tones. He said, " Rosa, we must go ; I 
can't bear to see you sold and drove like a beast, in a 
coffle to the rice swamps of Georgia, to say nothing of 
myself." She answered, " It can't be possible that mas- 
ter has sold us ; we have served him so faithfully for 
thirty years and always obeyed him. Oh dear, .Joe, what 
shall we do. They will catch us and whip us almost to 
death, and then we shall be separated never to see each 
other again. It may be we're not sold, and if we run off 
he'll sell us sure." Joe answered, " He sold us to-day ; I 
heard him read the names of ten of us, to the trader that 
has been about here three or four days, and our names 
ivcre first Yes, Rosa, we must go. If the}' catch us it 
can be no worse. The whipping will not be half as hard 
to bear as the thought that we never tried to be free, and 
if we die as Sally did when they caught her and whipped 
14 



106 SKETCHES OF THE 

her to death for killing the dog that caught her, even 
that is better than to be driven and sold away from each 
other." 

Fearing that they might be put in jail the next morn- 
ing, they started about midnight, taking nothing with 
them, traveling in the road until it began to be light, 
when they went into a swamp and waded in creeks and 
swamps until almost noon, so as to baffle the dogs. 
Then going as near the road as they thought would be 
safe, they rested until dark, when they started again. 
Before morning they were so faint from hunger and fa- 
tigue that Rosa could go no farther ; the next day Joe 
found some berries and brought to her these and a few 
roots, and some hours of sleep revived her so that they 
went forward. The fourth night they became so ex- 
hausted by hunger and fatigue that they laid down in 
the woods expecting to die there, but after resting a 
while Joe determined to obtain food for his wife at all 
hazards, and having slept until evening, he left her and 
went in search of a house. Coming to a road he followed 
it until he found that he had passed a house. Having 
the superstition common among slaves, he feared bad 
luck if he turned back, and so he went on and soon came 
to another house and knocked at the door. A man 
opened the door, and looking at Joe, said, " You are a 
fugitive slave, but be not afraid, come in." It was with 
great effort that Joe stepped into the house and sat down. 
The man spoke kindly to him, and when he learned 
which way he came, he said, " It is well for you that you 
did not stop at the house you came past ; they Avould 
have betrayed you. What can I do for you ? " Joe 
could only say " bread." When it was given to him he 
looked at it ^nd turned it over, seeming as the man 
thought, to almost devour it with his eyes. He said, 
'' You are starved ; Avhy don't you eat ? " " Yes," said 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 107 

Joe, " I am starved, but hungiy as I am, I could not eat 
this if I had none for my wife." "Eat," said the man, 
and going into another room he brought some bread and 
meat and sent him away, saying, " Stay where your wife 
is to-night and to-morrow ; come here again in the even- 
ing. Meanwhile, you must remember that your master 
will be looking for you. If I see any danger I will warn 
you by the ' crack of my rifle.' " 

When Joe started to go again to the house of their 
friend, Rosa went with him and stopped behind some 
bushes near the road. Joe had been gone about ten 
minutes when she heard horses coming, and looking 
through the bushes, she saw her master and two of his 
neighbors go by ; Joe had heard them also, and ran into 
the woods and soon heard the crack of a rifle. Later in 
the evening he went again to the house of their friend, 
who said, " Your master was here an hour ago and asked 
if I had seen two runaway niggers. I told him that a 
man and a woman went by pretty fast, but I did not see 
their faces, and did not know whether they were runa- 
ways or not, and he and his men rode off down the 
road." 

Joe and Rosa were in safe hands. They had, through 
great suffering, hunger, fright and fatigue, been guided 
by a kind Providence to the Southern terminus of the 
XT. G. R. R. The track had but just reached this point 
and was not yet in good running order. However, 
although the trains ran slow and with caution, they were 
landed safely in Chester Co., Pa., about ten days after 
they left the first station. 

Joe and Rosa found employment in the service of an 
honest Quaker farmer, who never asked them from 
whence they came. When they had been there almost 
a year, the Quaker returned from market one evening 
and sent for Joe to come to his room. When he came 



108 SKETCHES Oi<' THE 

ill the farmer said to him, " Be seated, Joseph, I wish to 
talk with thee. Thee will be careful what thee says ; if 
what I have heard about thee and thy wife be true, thee 
need not say so, nor is it necessary for thee to deny it. I 
have found that thou art discreet, and can be silent when 
to speak truth might result in something unpleasant. A 
man who says his name is Ridgley, and that he lives in 
Virginia, is stopping in Chester, and has employed a man 
who does little else than to hunt fugitives from slavery, 
to find and arrest a man and a woman that he says es- 
caped from his plantation last year. I overheard the 
hunter describing them when I went for my horses into 
the barn this afternoon. The description answered so 
well to thee and thy wife that I fear he will arrest thee 
whether ye are the people they are looking for or not. 
Ye have been faithful servants, and I shall add some- 
thing to the wages we agreed upon. Now go and talk 
with thy wife, and then come to me again for thy money, 
as I do not like to have accounts for labor run too long." 
The poor fugitive and his wife felt this new trouble 
severely ; they could not understand why two honest, in- 
dustrious people, who had done no wrong, should be 
driven from place to place while their persecutors were 
protected by the government and by society in thus de- 
priving them of their rights. When Joe went again to 
the farmer Rosa went with him. He gave to them their 
money, and then said : " Friend Walton starts at ten 
o'clock this evening so as to be in Philadelphia before 
morning with his butter ; he goes in the night because 
the days are too warm for the butter. There is a man 
to whom he will introduce you, and of whom you may 
buy such clothing as you need at fair prices ; his name 
is Benjamin Harrison. Thee can confide in him with 
safety, and Joseph, if thee thinks best to relate to him 
what I have told thee, he will give thee sound advice 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 109 

and efficient aid, but if thee would choose to stay with 
•us, go early to the hay field to work." Walton was a 
shrewd conductor, and he delivered them at Harrison's 
U. G. R. R. station in Southw^ark, a suburb of the Quaker 
City, in due time. 

The following day, about noon, Ridgley called at the 
house of the Quaker, and as dinner was ready he was 
invited to partake. He sat down with the family and 
soon entered into conversation about the fugitives. He 
spoke of them as having been frightened wathout cause 
and run off. They had always been well used, happy 
and contented, and he had no doubt they would be glad 
to go back among tlieir friends, as he would assure them 
they should not be punished if they would go without 
making him trouble. He had heard that two negroes 
answering the description of his were living there, and 
as the people in the neighborhood had long been op- 
posed to the return of fugitives, and might try to pre- 
vent their being carried back by process of law, he would 
like to see them, and if he was not mistaken about their 
identity, he believed they would rejoice to see him and 
go home willingly. He asked to have them called in 
without being told that he was there, that the family 
might witness their happiness on seeing their old mas- 
ter. The farmer said that his people Avere in the hay 
field at some distance from the house. " Thee will rest 
here until they come, and I will have them all come in 
and see if thee can identify them," he added, meanwhile 
drawing Ridgley into conversation on the subject of 
. slavery, maintaining that the white race had no better 
right to enslave the blacks than the blacks to enslave 
the whites. " I am aware," said Ridgley, " that your 
people are opposed, honestly, no doubt, to our institu- 
tion, but it exists among us, and must always be so, for 
should the mad schemes of the abolitionists prevail, 



110 SKETCHES OF THE 

amalgamation with all its disgusting results would be 
sure to follow ; and then so numerous a body of ignor- 
ant men having the rights of franchise and social posi- 
tion denied them cannot be controlled in any other posi- 
tion than that in which they are now held." 

" As to amalgamation," said the Quaker, " I regard 
emancipation as the only possible method of putting a 
stop to it ; for when both races are left to their own free 
choice the practice ceases. It has alw^ays been so and 
will be no different hereafter. The laws never interfere 
in such matters when all parties are free. Slavery forces 
amalgamation ; it is not in practice among free men. 
What thou saj^est in relation to the difficulty in control- 
ing so large a bod}^ of ignorant men, having their rights 
denied them, is without foundation, for when they are 
free they will not long remain in ignorance, and as to 
the right of franchise, if they cannot be made good citi- 
zens without it, then why deprive them of it ? " " Why 
deprive them ? " said Ridgley, " they are deprived of it 
already ! " " True," said the Quaker, " slaves do not vote, 
but when slavery is abolished they w411 bo citizens, and 
if to make them voters will make them better citizeiis, 
more easily governed because aiding in the government, 
then I say, why not grant them equal rights ? " " Be- 
cause," said Ridgley, " we should soon be overrun b}' 
them ? Who would ever consent to be ruled by nig- 
gers ? " " It seems to me," said the Quaker, " that thee 
puts a low estimate on the capacity of the wdiite race to 
maintain republican institutions if thee believes what 
thee says, that with equal rights twenty millions of 
whites cannot compete with four millions of black men ; 
thy self-respect must suffer serious damage in the con- 
templation of such conclusions. ' I noticed that among 
the rif/hfs of which thee takes it for granted that black 
men, after emancipation, will be deprived, thee has 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. Ill 

classed what thee calls 'social position.' In that thou 
art mistaken ; social position is not a rigid of which free 
men can be deprived by law, it is a conditwn to which 
men attain, or fail in the attainment, by conduct, talents 
and energy. In no other nation except tliis does the at- 
tainment of high social position depend on the color of 
the skin, and here, secure to him his freedom and equal 
rights before the law and the black man in his struggle 
for social position will willingly bide his time." 

" Well," said Ridgley, " I have not time now to answer 
all you have said, and to be honest I am constrained to 
acknowledge that the black man, even in slavery, does 
not occupy the lowest grade to which men are capable of 
going. We have, at the South, a class of low, white 
trash that Joe and Rosa would scorn to associate with." 

When the "hands" came in from the hay field, Ridg* 
ley looked among them in vain for his lost chattels, ah 
though there were among them colored men and women. 
" Are these all ? " said Ridgley. " Jacob," said the 
Quaker to his foreman, " where are Joseph and Rosa ? " 
^' They went to the city this morning," was the reply ; 
" they had a chance to ride, and as they wanted some 
clothes, I thought they had better go, and we have fin- 
ished the haying without their help." The countenances 
of the colored people present betrayed them. Ridgley 
saw at once that his chattels had been too fmart for him, 
and taking a hasty leave of the shrewd Quaker's family, 
whom he hardly suspected of being active agents on the . 
U. G. R. R., he hastened towards Philadelpliia, but he 
was never so near to them again as he was the night he 
stayed in Chester. 

Joe and Rosa passed through the old headquarters of 
tlie institution at Albany ; at fSyracuse Rev. J. W. Log- 
uen gave them letters to leading men in tlie Wilberforce 



112 SKETCHES OP THE 

Colony, C. W., and tickets by steamer across Lake 
Ontario. 

^Iy. S ', one of the leading men in Wilberforce 

Colony, was at our house a few years after the above 
scenes transpired, and mentioned Joe and Rosa as among 
the most successful farmers and respectable citizens in 
the settlement. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 113 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CASSEY ESCAPES FROM BALTIMORE RETURNS FOR HER 

CHILD — ESCAPES AGAIN IN SAILOR COSTUME ELUDES 

THE SLAVE CATCHER, CATHCART GOES TO CANADA 

RETURNS TO NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y. THE SLAVE CATCHER 

FINDS HER A LONG RIDE AND HOW IT CAME OUT — AN 

INTELLIGENT IRISHMAN — WHAT MARGARET* DID FOR 
HIM. 

Cassey was a slave in Baltimore ; her master's name 
was Claggett. She had been assured by those who 
knew, that she was about to be sold to a man who was 
making up a coffle for the markets in Louisiana or 
Texas. None but slaves can imagine the terror felt in 
view of such a prospect. Cassey fled like a frightened 
bird, and succeeded in reaching a place of safety near 
Haddonfield, N. J., where she obtained service in a re- 
spectable family. She was industrious, steady and hon- 
est, and her cheerful, obliging manners secured her many 
friends, yet a sadness was ever present on her counte- 
nance, for she had left in Baltimore a child, little more 
than a year old. Her master had not been unusually 
severe, but she had experienced and witnessed enougli 
of slavery to dread it for her child, and she therefore de- 
termined to make a desperate effort to save her little one 
from the liability of being sold and treated like a mere 
brute. The kind Quaker people among whom she had 



* See Margaret, Chapter XII. 

15 



114 SKETCHES OF THE 

found a home tried to dissuade her from attempting so 
hazardous an enterprise, deeming it not only dangerous? 
but well nigh hopeless ; but the mother's heart yearned 
for her babe, and she finally decided to try to save ]t at 
all hazards. 

She went to Baltimore and j^roceeded directly to the 
house of a colored family, old friends of hers, in whom 
she could safely confide. To her great joy she found 
that they approved her plan and were ready to assist 
her. Arrangements were soon made to convey the child 
to a place about twenty miles from Baltimore, where it 
would be well taken care of until the mother could 
safely take it to New Jersey. 

Before she could leave the city her master was in- 
formed that she was there and sent constables in pursuit 
of her, but her friends were apprized of it in season to 
give her warning, and her own courage and ingenuity 
were adequate to the emergency. She disguised herself 
in sailor's clothes and walked boldly to the Philadelphia 
boat. There she walked up and down the deck smoking 
a cigar, occasionally passing and re-passing the con- 
stables who had been sent to take her. The constables 
left the boat after waiting till it was about to start ; they 
were watching for a colored woman to come on board 
answering to her description. 

The boat brought her. safely to Philadelphia, and she 
soon reached her friends in Haddonfield, who rejoiced 
over the history of her escape and the success of her en- 
terprise. A few weeks after she went to the place where 
her child had been left, and succeeded in bringing it 
away in safety. 

For a short time her happiness seemed to be complete ; 
but she soon began to be harassed with fears that her 
master would succeed in finding them and take them 
both back to slavery. At length she resolved to go to 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 115 

Philadelphia, which was not far distant, and get the ad- 
vice of Benjamin Harrison, a Quaker who was ever 
ready to aid fugitives from slavery. He advised her to 
leave her child in the care of a family living quite re- 
mote from public travel, where it would be entirely safe, 
and go herself farther north. Acting upon friend Har- 
rison's advice, she had placed her child in the care of the 
family that he recommended and returned to Philadel- 
phia, intending- to start north in a day or two ; but, 
passing along the street in which her friend lived, she 
met Cathcart, the speculator to whom she had been sold. 
Hurrying forward she reached the door of her friend in 
time to go in before he could get hold of her. Harrison 
saw the chase and locked his doors. Cathcart placed 
men about the house to watch while he went for con- 
stables and a warrant. It was evening, and the offices 
being closed, he was slow in obtaining his papers ; mean- 
while, in passing through his kitchen, Harrison saw that 
two of his domestics seemed very merry over some pro- 
ject they had on foot, and he watched their movements. 
One of them put on an old cloak and a dilapidated bon- 
net, and opening the front door looked up and down the 
street; then rushing out she turned a corner and ran 
with all her might. The watchers saw it all, sprang 
from their hiding places and overtook her. She 
screamed and called for the police, who soon arrived and 
took all parties into custody. During the excitement 
Cassey escaped, and before Cathcart returned with his 
constables she was crossing the Delaware River in a 
skiff. She was so terribly frightened by this adventure 
that she determined not to stop again short of Canada, 
Having saved her earnings she was able to travel by 
steamboat and canal packet, and soon arrived in Canada 
and found friends and a home at Lundy's Lane, near 
Niagara Falls. 



116 SKETCHES 01'' THE 

Cassey's bo}' was a fine, active little fellow, and she de- 
termined to earn money to buy his freedom, for, being a 
very capable woman, she commanded high wages. The 
agent of the U. G. R. R, at Niagara Falls, was a wealthy 
gentleman, living some two miles back from the river, 
where he had an excellent farm, a fine mansion, splen- 
did stock and superb horses. All the negro servants at 
the Falls were in the secret service of the institution, and 
not a few of the white citizens were friendly toward 
it. When Cassey had been in Canada three or four 
years our agent above mentioned applied to her to en- 
gage in his service, and as he would pay her much 
higher wages than she could obtain in Canada, she, sup- 
posing that all danger had passed, came over on the 
Suspension Bridge and went to work for him. She 
never went into the village except to go occasionally to 
meeting on Sunday. One Sunday, as she passed out of 
the church, she saw a man standing near the door, 
sharply scanning the features of every colored person 
that came out. Her eyes met his and they recognized 
each other, but she managed to get away in the crowd 
and he lost sight of her. 

The facilities offered by the fugitive slave law for cap- 
turing runaway slaves had made it a profitable business, 
and Cathcart had bought " running " a large lot of fugi- 
tives, expecting to make a good speculation if he could 
capture even one in ten of them. He had come on to 
the Falls, rightly guessing that some of them would be 
about there, and he was at the church door in pursuit of 
his regular business. One of the shrewdest men, either 
white or black, that lived in that village, was Ben Jack- 
son, a free negro. Ben was a servant in the hotel where 
Cathcart was stopping, and he had already, as was his 
custom, taken pains to talk with other colored servants 
in Cathcart's presence about the slaves running away 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 117 

and coming here to work for almost nothing, saying, 
" we 'spectable niggers can't get anything to do half the 
time, and we get drefful little for it when we get a place. 
They ought to be tuck back where they belong." Cath- 
cart went directly to Ben, and taking him aside, he des- 
cribed Cassey, told where he saw her, and inquired if 
Ben knew her. "Yes," said Ben, "I knows her. She 
lives over to Lundy's Lane. She comes over on the 
Suspension Bridge sometimes to Methodist meeting." 
Cathcart had already engaged a score of shaggy Demo- 
crats to start at his bidding, and he sent two of them 
without delay to watch the bridge, and others were sent 
to all the crossing places between Tonawanda and 
Youngstown, the gate-keeper at the bridge having told 
him that no such person had crossed over to Canada 
that day. 

Ben lost no time in sending word to Cassey and to Col. 

p ^ with whom she lived, telling them how he had 

misled the slave hunter. As soon as it was dark a 
trusty conductor started with Cassey towards Lockport, 

and Col. P had his fleetest team harnessed to a close 

carriage, standing in his barn ready to start at a mo- 
ment's warning. 

Cathcart came back from the bridge, and calling the 
landlord aside, told him that he had seen one of the 
slaves that he was looking for ; he also related what Ben 
had said to him. " Well," said the landlord, " Ben is a 
trusty fellow generally, but you ought to know better 
than to confide in any negro on business relating to fu- 
gitives." " But I heard' him saying that the runaway 
niggers were working for low wages and ought to be 
sent back." " Ben said that," replied the landlord, " when 
he knew you would hear it. Did the woman recognize 
you ? " " I think she did," said Cathcart. " Then," said 
the landlord, " no time is to be lost. She has no doubt 



118 SKETCHES OF THE 

gone to Col. P . He lias wealth and influence, and 

whatever you do with him must be done legally. You 
have the law and the strongest party in the State on 
your side, while he knows just how much or how little 
the law can do for you. He has at his command means 
for hiding and running off these people that no one has 
yet found out. They call it the Underground Railroad- 
They must go under ground or by balloon, for once in his 
hands they are never seen again this side of the river." 

The President had not been so careless of the interests 
of his slaveholding friends who visit the Falls as to leave 
them without the means of reclaiming their fugitive ser- 
vants. A Commissioner and Marshals Were located there, 
so that Cathcart, although it was Sunday evening, had 
his papers in the Marshal's hands as soon as possible, and 
he, with his deputies, were by ten o'clock, p. m., approach- 

ino- Col. P 's place by different roads. Meanwhile, 

the Colonel had his spies out, and he was on the front 
seat of his carriage, with his driver, in his barn. 

When the Marshal drew near, a signal was given, the 
barn door opened suddenly, and the Colonel, with the 
fastest team in Niagara County, dashed out and down 
the- road toward Lewiston. The Marshal was coming on 
that road and tried to stop him, but he passed on and 
was followed by the officers who tried to get ahead. The 
Colonel tantalized them by allowing them to come 
alongside, but to get by or to stop him was out of the 
question. Thus he led them all the way to the ferry at 
Youngstown, having passed Lewiston without stopping. 
At Youngstown he allowed them to drive past him, but 
before the ]\hirshal could get to him he turned about and 
started back toward home, the officers still keeping in 
sight of him until he drove into his barn. When he 
stopped the officers were close by, and rushing up to 
both sides -of the carriage, were astonished to find no 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 119 

person inside of it, the Colonel having been careful to 
allow them to keep near enough to know positively that 
no person had left the carriage since it started. " Come 
into the house, gentlemen, and have some refreshments," 
said the Colonel. " Bill, rub down their horses, they are 
a fine team, and have tried the bottom of my grays. I 
thought you would give it up at Lewiston,but as you de- 
cided to go on I thought if any team in this county 
could show better bottom for a long drive than mine, I 
should like to know it." By this time the Marshal had 
made up his mind that there Avas no game there, and he 
drove on without waiting for Bill to groom his horses or 
to hold any conversation with the Colonel. 

One of the best conductors in Niagara County was an 

Irishman by the name of Dennis W . He lived on a 

good farm between the canal and the ridge road, about 
four miles from Lockport. He was active, intelligent 
and industrious. I first knew him as an active member 
of the Liberty Party, and afterwards as a conductor on 

the U. G. R. R. When Col. P found the crossing 

dangerous, he sent passengers to Dennis, while he man- 
aged to mislead the hunters. The conductor who took 
Cassey to his station, told Dennis not to keep her about 
his own premises, for he was beginning to be suspected. 
Dennis had a friend who came from Ireland a year or 
two previous, and he had fixed up a place for him to live 
in on a remote part of his farm. Supposing it would be 
a safe place for Cassey to stop a few days, he went to see 
if he would take her into his house, and said to him, 
" Jimmy, I have a favor to ask of you." " Ye shall have 
it before I know what it is," said Jimmy, " though it 
might be half of my kingdom ! " " It isn't that," said 
Dennis, "I only want a place for a poor woman to stay 
a few days." He then told who she was, and gave a 
thrilling account of her troubles and the terrible things 



120 SKETCHES OF THE 

she would have to suffer if she was captured. When he 
had told her story it had just got into Jim's head that 
she was a negro, and he exclaimed, "It's a nagur ye 
would bring here, is it ? I'll have none of it ! It's the 
same that's coming here "in swarms if they make Linkin 
and that other nagur President ; and won't they work 
for nothing, and then the poor folks can get no work ? 
and was n't that .what the man said at the Dimicrat 
meeting up there to Lockport ? — and they are coming 
already, are they ? No, no, away wid 'em ! " When 
Jimmy had given vent to his feelings and his fears, 
Dennis said, " I will tell you a short story. You know I 
came over here twenty-five years ago, and left Mary and 
her baby to come when I could earn money to send for 
them. Well, I was sick on the ship, and when I landed 
in New York I was sick, and had no money and noplace 
to go to. I wandered in the streets too sick to work or 
to eat, and after a while I think I lost my senses, for I 
awoke one morning and could n't imagine where I was. 
After a while a woman spoke to me and said, ' are you 
better ? you will get well and go and see Mary.' I said, 
' where is Mary ? ' She replied, ' I do n't know. You 
have talked about her, and I guess she is away in Ire- 
land.' She brought some food and I ate a very little. 
The room was dark, so I had not seen her face ; when 
she brought a light I saw that she was as black as a 
boot. I should have been frightened, but her voice was 
sweet, and she spoke so tenderly tliat I did not mind her 
looks. 

" The woman who saved my life was called Margaret. 
She had been a slave and escaped, bringing off her little 
boy. She had found me lying on her door-step,. almost 
dead, taken me in and nursed me into life again. When 
I was well enough to work she kept me until I found 
work, and then lent me money to send for Mar}^ and the 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 121 

boy. Well, I can't stop now to tell how I prospered and 
bought this farm, went to school — yes, went to school 
with children, and when I had been here the proper 
time I was naturalized, and supposed I was a Democrat 
and would vote their ticket. At the first election I at- 
tended, a man gave me a vote and said, ' you are a Dem- 
ocrat, of course, and here is another vote.' I said, ' what 
is that ? ' and looking at it I saw it was something about 
the Constitution. He said it was to prevent negroes 
from voting if they had not real estate worth |250, and 
I said, ' can't Irishmen vote until they have real estate ? ' 
'Oh, yes,' said he, 'but the negroes are ignorant.' Said 
I, ' the first person that treated me kindly in this coun- 
try was a black negro, was once a slave, and it took me 
five years to learn what she knew then of books, and as 
to general information she was better informed than her 
white neighbors. Her son, Samuel R. Ward, was an ed- 
ucated gentleman, and I see no reason why he should 
not vote as well as I. No, sir,' said I, ' if that is Demo- 
cratic doctrine I can't vote your ticket,' and now I see 
the same party are at their old tricks. They tell you 
that black men will do all the work for nothing. It is 
not because men are black that they work for nothing, 
but because they are held in slavery. When all men 
become free citizens labor will command its value." 

" What do you say," said Dennis, " shall I bring her 
here for a few days?" "Yes," said Jimmj^, "let her 
come, and may the holy Virgin forget me whin I'm in 
sorest need if I let a spalpeen of a Democrat hurt a hair 
of her head." 

She had been at .Jimmy's place but a short time when 
the rebels fired on our flag, after which Cassey went back 
and found her boy, and as fugitives were now safe in 
New Jersey she decided to remain with her Quaker 
friends. 
16 



122 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER XVII. 

TOM HAWKINS — NEGROES AND POOR WHITES IN KEN- 
TUCKY TOM RUNS HIS OWN TRAIN SELLS HIS SHIRT 

TO PAY HIS FARE AT THE FERRY IS BORN INTO GOD's 

FREE AIR ALMOST AS NAKED AS HE WAS BORN INTO 

SLAVERY HIS MODESTY, INDUSTRY, INTELLIGENCE AND 

PROSPERITY, 

It has been a common belief in the Free States that 
the shives in the South were the most ignorant and tlie 
most stupid human beings to be found in any country 
blessed with Christian civilization, and from that idea, 
mainly, has arisen the fear in the minds of many good 
people that the Republican doctrine of universal, loyal, 
manhood suffrage may prove a disastrous experiment. 
As an offset to such grounds of fear, it may be well to 
remember that there is a large class of white men living 
in the midst of the black population in the old slave 
States, who are even more ignorant, more stupid, and in 
all respects more degraded than the slaves were, the 
slaveholders themselves being judges, yet the "poor 
white trash," as the aristocracy and even the slaves call 
them, have equal rights at the ballot box with their rich 
and intelligent neighbors. Since the slaves were eman- 
cipated, schools have been established for the benefit of 
all classes, black and white, of which the blacks almost 
universally avail themselves, while the aforesaid class of 
poor whites, with few exceptions, treat every attempt to 
educate and elevate them with utmost scorn. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 123 

When traveling in the skive States twenty years ago, I_ 
found this class of white people unable to give any in- 
formation as to the distance to the nearest town, and not 
one in ten knew the name of the county where they 
lived. Between Paris and Winchester, Ky., a heavy 
shower came upon us, and we found shelter in a house 
in the edge of the woods. A man and his wife, and five 
or six children, were in the house, and the combined 
wisdom of the household could give us no information 
as to how far it was to either of the above towns. " It 
was a right smart chance of a walk," and that was all 
they knew about it, nor did they know the name of the 
county they lived in, or the political party the " old 
man " voted for ; he thought, however, his name w^as not 
" political party." " Was it Harry Clay ? " " No, it was 
t'other feller." When the shower was over we started 
towards Winchester, and soon met an old negro passing 
along the road. Stopping our horse, I said, " Good even- 
ing, uncle." He took off his hat and responded, "Good 
ebening, sar." I said, " Put your hat on your head, my 
friend, you are an old man." He looked at us, then at 
his hat,. and finally put his hat under his arm, and stood 
uneasily, tui^ning partly around. Seeing that he felt 
embarrassed, I thought I would ask him some questions, 
and see if the old negro was as ignorant as the Loco 
Foco voter w^hose roof had partially sheltered us during 
the late shower, so I asked, "How far is it to Winches- 
ter ? " " Bout four mile." " How far to Paris ? " " Ten 
or twelve mile," he replied, both of which answers proved 
correct. " Can you tell us what county we are in ? " 
" Dis am Clark County," said he, " but just ober dar is 
Bourbon County," and pointing west, -he said, " dat wa}', 
bout two mile, am Fayette County." 

We found the old slave quite intelligent on many sub- 
jects. I asked him where he lived, and he said, " In 



124 SKETCHES OE THE 

Fayette County, most down to Lexington. I'se looking 
forde mules; Massa Hawkins' mules am run off." When 
we started along he put his hat on, then snatching it off 
again, he said, " Please, master, do you live down to 
Louisville ? " I answered, " No ; why do you wish to 
know ? " " Cause," said he, " my boy Tom was sold down 
de river, and I hear he cook on fteamboat, and come to 
Louisville sometimes. His old mother wants to hear if 
he is alive." As w^e did not live in Louisville, we could 
give the old man no news to carry to Tom's mother. 
Whether the old woman ever heard about Tom going 
ashore near Louisville and getting lost, and not finding 
his way back again, I do not know, but that such was 
his fate I haA^e no doubt, nor am I quite sure that his 
arrival in Canada can be justly credited to the U. G. R. 
R., for he "paddled his own canoe " and engineered his 
own train on independent principles. 

On the 15th of the present month (September, 18G8), I 
met on the steamboat between Mayville and Jamestown, 

Dr. C , a gentleman with whom I had some business 

transactions in Canada more than twenty years ago. He 
was then a merchant, and carried on an extensive distil- 
lery and ashery at a village some eight or ten miles from 
St. David's. We did not recognize each other at first, 
until he incidentally mentioned the name of Hon. Ham- 
ilton Merritt, wdiose wife was the daughter of Mr. P , 

one of the first settlers in Jamestown. Recollecting that 
Mr. Merritt lived in Canada, I asked the gentleman if 
he had lived there. He answered that he had, and w^e 
soon renewed our acquaintance. One of our party 
asked him if he was acquainted with any of the fugitives 
who w^ent there. He said he had employed several of 
them, one of whom was the strongest man he had 'ever 
seen. His name w^as Jack. One day Jack drove to the 
ashery with a load of wood, and came to the house and 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 125 

asked for a shirt. He had found a negro in the woods 
who had no clothes except a part of a pair of pants. 
Jack was a very large man, and his shirts were too large 
for the fugitive, so he asked for a donation to clothe the 
poor fellow. A comfortable suit of clothes was soon pro- 
vided, and Jack brought the boy in with his next load 
of wood ; he was taken to the kitchen, where he was 
warmed and fed, and at night a comfortable place was 
provided for him to sleep in. 

The next morning when the Doctor got up, he found 
his boots and the shoes and boots of all his family nicely 
brushed and " shined u^)," and when he came home at 
evening he noticed that the wood was all piled in his 
wood-house in a very orderly manner, and on going to 
his horse barn and carriage house he found the barn 
swept and put in order, harnesses and carriages brushed 
and cleaned, and the poor fugitive was there putting 

things in order generally. Going up to him. Dr. C 

said, " Who has been meddling with these things ? " 
" Beg pardon," said the boy, " I had nothing else to do." 
" Well," said fhe Doctor, " go into the kitchen and get 
your supper." On inquiry, he learned that the boy had 
been busy every moment during the day, though his 
feet were in a terrible condition, and his bod}^ reduced 
by starvation to a mere skeleton. 

After tea the boy was invited into the sitting room, 
and the Doctor said to him, " What is your name ? " He 
replied, " It am Tom Hawkins." 

Tom seemed afraid to talk about himself, but the Doc- 
tor assured him that he was safe, and that no person 
could claim him as a vslave, and he was finally induced 
to relate his adventures. He had been a servant on a 
steamboat on the Mississippi river, and had been kind 
and serviceable to a passenger who was very sick on the 
boat. Tom found out that the man might be trusted, 



126 SKETCHES OF THE 

and ventured to ask him how he could obtain his free- 
dom. He advised him to secrete himself on a boat that 
was lying near where they had stopped and keep himself 
hidden among the freight until they got to Pittsburgh, 
then showing him the north star and teaching him the 
way to find it, he told him to go towards it until he came 
to water that he could not see across, then turn to the 
right and keep within sight of it until he could see land 
and hovises on the other side ; "that," said he, "is Can- 
ada, Get over there and you will be a free man." 

Tom Hawkins had witnessed more than once cases of 
excruciating torture inflicted on defenseless, captured fu- 
gitives, and knew that just such punishment awaited him 
if he should fail in an attempt to gain his freedom ; but 
such was his yearning for liberty, the prompting of his 
untutored manhood, that he did not shrink from the 
trial. He was so fortunate as to smuggle himself on 
board a l^oat that favored his escape as far as Pittsburgh, 
but wdien he found himself alone on the north shore of 
the river, a few miles below the city, without food, except 
a small supply for a day or two, no clothes except a light 
summer suit, ignorant of the geography of the country, 
and of any direct route to a place of safety that seemed 
to him to exist only in imagination ; and worst of all, 
beholding an enemy, as he supposed, in every human 
being that he met, in the dreariness of a dark, rainy 
night in the woods, he thought over the horrid scenes he 
had been compelled to look upon, of captured fugitives 
that had been returned to slaver}^ by virtue of the fugi- 
tive slave law, and whij^ped to death as a warning to any 
who thought of running away. Tom was not discour- 
aged by all this. He sat down and called to mind the 
instruction his friend gave him about the way to the 
place where all are free, and determined to follow it out 
without the least variation ; consequently he did not go 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 127 

forward until nearly morning, when the clouds broke 
and he obtained his bearings by a sight of the north 
star. 

It would be tedious to follow him through long days 
waiting in the woods, and longer nights when clouds ob- 
scured his only guide. He went sometimes in the roads, 
then in woods or fields, and at length arrived at the ridge 
of highland south of Erie, Pa., when all at once he 
looked down upon the " wide water," as it had been des- 
cribed. It was to Tom as if all material things had dis- 
appeared, and heaven burst suddenly into view. To 
him, that beautiful panorama of woods and fields, towns 
and rural homes, and the broad lake beyond with no 
shore in sight, was a sure token that all his friend had 
said to him was true, not only as to the way that he 
should go, but also regarding th^ liberty, prosperity and 
protection that he should enjoy at the end of his perilous 
journe3\ So cautious was he that he traveled mostly in 
fields, woods, and through bushes, living on such corn, 
vegetables and fruits as he could procure, and when he 
arrived at the ferry near Lewiston, he had worn out all 
his clothes except his shirt and pants, and lost his hat. 
He was sitting near the boat when the ferryman and 
some passengers came in the morning, and just as they 
were starting he stepped on board. The boatsman de- 
manded a shilling for his passage, and as he had no 
shilling he was ordered off fhe boat, but Tom stripped 
off his shirt and offered to sell it for a shilling, and find- 
ing a purchaser, he paid his fare and went over. In his 
extreme caution he had avoided being seen even by our 
vigilant U. G. R R. agents, and now found himself born 
into God's free air almost as naked as he was born into 
slavery. Hence, as it was early in the morning, he 
managed to get through the village of Queenstown and 
into a place where he stayed until evening, when he 



128 SKETCHES OF THE 

started along the road, and in the morning- laid down 
exhausted, starved and cold by a pile of ood, where 
Jack found him and " took him in " as above related, 

Tom Hawkins proved himself worthy of the freedom 
he had achieved. It was edifying to witness the enthu- 
siasm of the Doctor in speaking of Tom's capabilities. 
He employed him as a " man of all work " at |15 per 
month, high wages for that time. Tom had a " weak- 
ness" that stood in the way of financial prosperity, 
namely, a soft heart toward everybody that wanted to 
borrow his money,, and so many of these were lazy, dis- 
honest scamps, that at the end of six months he had 
nothing to show for the wages he had earned except a 
suit of clothes. The Doctor advised him to take better 
care of his money, so as to buy him a home. "Well, 
then," said Tom, " you must keep my money, and when 
I ask for money to lend fo a lazy chap that won't pay, 
you can just get mad and not let me have it." About 
that time a man offered for sale fifteen acres of heavily 
timbered land two miles from town, and the Doctor pro- 
posed to Tom to buy it. He hesitated about getting into 

debt, but Dr. C said, " I will take care of that." 

" Well, then," said Tom, " you know best, master." Tom 
always persisted in calling him " master." At the end 
of five years Tom had paid for his land, and bought one 
of the best teams in the country, and a first rate harness 
and wagon, and commenced -marketing his wood. The 
Doctor said that one of Tom's peculiarities was that 
when he purchased anything for his own use he always 
bought the best that was to be had. An English gentle- 
man living in the town had, in his family, a handsome 
colored girl. She was well educated, industrious, and a 
very capable housekeeper, of a sunny temper and agree- 
able address. Tom built a good house, and then asked 
this girl to become his wife. They were married, and 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 129 

Tom Hawkins is now regarded as one of the most thrift}^ 
farmers in the district. His farm, his house, his barns, 
and everything that appertains to them are kept in the 
neatest possible condition, and his note or his word is 
good for any sum that he would ask for, and I might 
add that when he became a freeholder in Canada he be- 
came a voter. How many white boys with nothing but 
their hands, their energy, talents and good conduct for 
capital in starting in the world, can show a better record 
than Tom Hawkins ? 



17 



130 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WILLIAM AND MARGARET SEVENTY YEARS OLD AND DE- 
TERMINED TO BE FREE — HALF BROTHER TO A U. S. 
SENATOR ARGUMENT IN A R. R. CAR. 

During an experience of many years in the transac- 
tions of the U. G. R. R, no incident is remembered as 
more sad than the voluntary exile of William Holmes 
and his wife, Margaret, at about seventy years of age. 
They arrived at our station late in the evening of a very 
cold day, and although well protected with blankets and 
Buffalo robes, they suffered terribly on the route to our 
station at Versailles from Fredonia, from which station 
they started at 3 p. m. The snow was deep and much 
drifted, and it was one of the coldest days of the season. 
They had seldom seen snow more than a day at a time, 
and to cross a river on a bridge of ice was an idea that 
they could not comprehend until they found themselves 
rising the east bank of the Cattaraugus Creek (the 
crossing was on the ice, there being no bridge at that 
time), on the way to friend Andrew's station. 

As soon after their arrival as they were fed and com- 
fortably warmed, they went to bed. An hour before 
daylight they heard a boy making a fire, and Margaret 
was up and at work before the room was warm. When 
the family came into the sitting room they found her 
sweeping, and she insisted upon helping about the work 
as long as she could find anything to do. She was of 
medium height, and remarkably well formed for one of 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 131 

her age, and evidently had never been overworked ; she 
was tidily dressed, and her gray hair was nearly con- 
cealed under a turban, tastefully arranged. Her voice 
was low and soft, and her language such as you would 
hear in good families in the slave States, including their 
peculiar phrases and provincialisms, such as " a heap," 
" a right smart chance," etc., etc. 

Holmes was a large man. His hair was almost white ; 
his features had none of the peculiarities of the negro, 
and the complexion of both of them was so nearly white 
that but for the kink of their hair, few people would 
suppose they could have been slaves. Margaret was 
smart and lively as a girl, but William was nearly crip- 
pled by rheumatism. Margaret was anxious to assist 
about ironing, and remarked that she " did not know 
who would take care of her mistress' nice things now ; 
she had always done it, and she had dressed her ever 
since she was a child," A sadness came like a cloud on 
her pleasant face when she spoke of it, but when re- 
minded that in one more day slie would be where there 
was no more slavery, the expression of her countenance 
was like the sun shining on a beautiful landscape after a 

summer shower. 

Her mistress had been kind to her, punishing her 

gently for any mistakes or neglect of duty by slapping her 
face vnth the sole of her shoe, and sending her to bed with- 
out her supper if she cried about it. She knew that 
Margaret had the blood of her own family in her veins, 
and that she had been promised her freedom long ago^ 
which promise had been often renewed ; that her child- 
ren had been torn from her and sold, an excuse for so 
doing being ever at hand, in their temper and complex- 
ion, for which reasons, no doubt, she had been lenient in 
her treatment of her faithful slaves. 

William Holmes claimed to be a near relative to his 
master, whose name he bore, and who was a Senator in 



132 SKETCHES OF THE 

the Congress of the United States. He, too, had been 
promised his freedom, a boon that he had longed for 
every hour of a long life, until despairing of the fulfill- 
ment of the promise, he and his wife, in their old age, 
resolved to be free in this life and die in a free country, 
and they availed themselves of an opportunity to make 
their escape, the details of which they refused to divulge 
lest their friends might suffer. Their movements at the 
start were such as to direct attention towards Wilming- 
ton, N. C.,and before the Senator had given up watching 
for their embarkation on a Boston ship at that port, they 
were far on their journey towards Ohio. They started 
during the Christmas holidays, and their old age and 
light complexion enabled them to travel without being- 
suspected ; besides, I have supposed that some member 
of the Holmes family, knowing the promises that had 
been made them, and the injustice and cruelty with 
which they had been treated in having the promises of 
their freedom broken and their children sold ; knowing 
also their intense longing for liberty, conducted them 
through the long route to our station on the Ohio River, 
for they came that way and had a list of names of the 
U. G. R. R. agents, including several men of note in 
Ohio They were both professors of religion, and the 
spirit of forgiveness, humility and patience, exemplified 
in the conversation of Margaret, was evidence of true 
piety, and her gentle rebukes to William when his in- 
dignation got the control of his language, was evidence 
of her care for his spiritual welfare and Christian reputa- 
tion. 

They had so entirely eluded pursuit that all fear of 
capture had subsided, and they might have remained in 
safety in our neighborhood, yet their hatred of slavery 
was such that they would inake no long tarry short of a 
place where slavery was a thing not possible, though 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 133 

they felt safe in spending a few hours with us. It was 
but six miles to the next station, where they would stay 
over night, therefore we availed ourselves of the oppor. 
tunity to get what information we could from our 
guests. 

William was intelligent, and could read and write, had 
spent many winters m Washington, from whence he 
would have escaped long ago but for his affection for 
Margaret and the aforesaid promise of emancipation. 
He had a calm and dignified manner in speaking on 
any subject except his own condition, parentage and de- 
gradation ; on that subject he could not talk without be- 
coming so excited that, notwithstanding his profession of 
piety, he would swear in a somewhat modified style ; 
then Margaret would chide him in her pleasant way, 
saying, " Now don't, Willie, it will only make you feel 
bad to talk so, and I'd a heap rather be in your place 
than his. Besides, maybe old massa will repent some 
time." Then he would cool down, and undei her eye, 
talk without excitement a few minutes. Said he : " The 
man I called master was my half brother. My mother 
was a better woman than his, and I was the smartest boy 
of the two, but while he had a right smart chance at 
school, I was whipped if I asked the name of the letters 
that spell the name of the God that made us both of one 
blood. While he was sent to college, I had no teacher 
but old Pomp, but great pains were taken to teach me 
that the whole power of the nation was pledged to keep 
me in slavery. I might protest, threaten, feign sickness 
or run away, the struggle was against fearful odds, there- 
fore the less we knew the less we would suffer. When 
we were boys," said he, " I asked him one day when we 
were playing together, wh}^ I might not learn to read as 
well as he. ' Because,' said he, ' slaves ought not to know 
too much, it would make them discontented ; they know 



134 SKETCHES OF THI<] 

more now than the poor white trash, — I heard father say 
so' — while I know," said William, "that the ' poor white 
trash ' naturally know as much as the rich white trash, 
give them both the same advantage in the world." By 
this time he had become so excited that Margaret found 
it necessary to soothe him. A few kind, encouraging- 
words from her acted like magic on William's excitable 
temper, though his temper was the result of a keen sense 
of wrong, comparing his own condition with that of his 
half brother. 

A friend who now resides in Fredonia was then living 
in Simcoe, Canada West, and saw William and Margaret 
a few weeks after they left our station, on their way to 
the Wilberforce Colony, apparently happy in their new 
found freedom, and confident in their ability to take care 
of themselves. 

No incident has come under my own observation in a 
long time that so forcibly relninded me of Holmes' voice, 
excited manner, and eloquence in appealing to the pa - 
triotism and humanity of his audience, like one I wit- 
nessed in a car on the Lake Shore Road. Two men 
were conversing on the prospects of the parties in the 
present canvass. Sitting near them, I heard one of them, 
who resembled Holmes in his age, size and physical de- 
velopment, talking low and apparently little excited 
while the other, who seemed to have the advantage of 
education and experience in handling the subjects under 
discussion, persisted in trying to make the financial 
question, as stated and maintained by the Copperheads, 
the leading and paramount question to be settled by the 
present canvass. Whenever the old man tried to intro- 
duce the question of reconstruction on loyal principle!^, 
or free loyal suffrage, his antagonist would seem not to 
hear or to notice what he said, but in the noise and con- 
fusion I could hear now and then the phrases, "bloated 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 135 

bondholders," "greenbacks," "taxes," "national debt," 
&c., &c. A crowd gathered around them, one of whom 
is a peddler, who is always on every train. From him 
you would hear " nigger voters," " nigger equality," ring- 
ing the changes on the "nigger" all the way up to marry- 
ing somebody's wife or daughter. 

The old gentleman held his own manfully, though I 
could not understand all that was said, until, finding 
himself beset on all sides by a pack of noisy Democrats, 
he stood up and taking the attitude that reminded me of 
the old man Holmes, in a voice not very loud, but so 
distinct that half the people in the car heard him, he 
said, " Gentlemen, this talk about financial ruin, repudi- 
ation of honest debts, contrivances to make our govern- 
ment odious and our people the cowardly, dishonest 
knaves the rebels claim they are, may all seem profit- 
able and pleasant to you, but when you ask me to vote 
for the red-handed devils, or any who sympathize with 
them, that murdered, in malice aforethought, 50,000 
prisoners, starved my own boy until there was not a 
pound of flesh on his bones, and then shot him on their 
'dead line' when reaching across to get a little water, in 
the only place where water was to be had, water, for 
which he had been famished through a long day, I beg 
to be excused." 

" Then," said he, " in order to belittle these vital issues? 
your Seymours and Pendletons are stretching out long 
lines of figures with the sign of dollars at the head to 
frighten the people into choosing rulers who make dol- 
lars their god, and loyalty a thing to be bought and sold," 
and turning to the man wdio had been ringing changes 
on this financial question, he said, "Who are the men, 
which is the party that has heaped this burden of debt 
upon this nation ? Let's hear from you on that ! " By 
this time the man had learned that equivocation 



136 SKETCHES OF THE 

wouldn't go far in the controversy, and declined answer- 
ing. " Well," said the old man, " after bringing this 
burden of taxation into the house, you propose to disown 
your own offspring." 

Then turning toward the aforesaid peddler, who had 
stood their grinning during the old man's talk, he said, 
*' I think you made some remark about the Republican 
going doim to the level of the negro. Now, sir, it may be of 
use for you to know that if you ever get on to that level, 
you will be going up instead of doimi, and I advise you 
to take it moderately, for it would make your head swim 
to go up all at once." 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 131 



CHAPTER XIX. 

AN OLD TIME MISSIONARY AT THE SOUTH — SPEAKS HIS 
MIND BUT LOSES HIS SHIRTS THE SLAVEHOLDER'S PENI- 
TENT LETTER. 

One of the early settlers in Onondaga Co., N, Y., was 

Rev. Mr. R . He was a highly educated clergyman, 

and a popular preacher. The church in the rural town- 
ship of F , where he owned one of the best farms 

in the county, would have been glad to secure his ser- 
vices as pastor, but having propert}^ sufficient to main- 
tain his family, and a wife who was capable of managing 
his affairs, he determined to devote himself to mission- 
ary labor in the far South. No recollections of my 
childhood are more vividly and distinctly marked in 
my memory than his portly figure, firmly seated in his 
saddle on his great chestnut mare, with immense saddle 
bags stuffed to their utmost capacity with changes 
of linen, children's toy books, tracts and Testaments, and 
the dfelight with which, after an absence of half a year, 
all the children in the settlement greeted his return, and 
listened to his wonderful stories of his adventures, mis- 
sionary labors and providential escapes from wild beasts 
in the wilderness and alligators in the rivers. When he 
described the growing cotton, indigo, rice and sugarcane, 
it seemed to us children that he must have been half 
around the world since we saw him last. There were in 
those days no missionary societies, therefore he was self- 
appointed and self-sustained, paid his own expenses, 
thought his own thoughts and spoke his own opinions, 
18 



138 SKETCHES OF THE 

which were not always quite agreeable to liis'slavehold- 
ing brethren. There being as yet no abolition excite- 
ment, he met with little trouble. Whatever cruelty 
might have been practiced toward the slaves, little of it 
came under his observation, but in trying to do his duty 
to all classes, the poor and the ri.ch, the bond and the 
free, the degradation of the low order of the white popu- 
lation became a source of astonishment and grief to him^ 
and the slaves, who seemed both more intelligent and 
more happy than they, so far as he had observed, occu- 
pied an enviable position in comparison. 

Being in Charleston, S. C, one day, he bought mater- 
ial for some shirts, intending to stop a day and get them 
made at brother Poindexter's, a Baptist brother, living 
on his plantation farther down. Before he got out of 
the city, he heard, in passing a large building, an 
auctioneer selling property, while his voice was almost 
drowned by cries of distress. He had heard of sales of 
slaves at auction, but had never seen one, therefore he 
went in to see for himself. The result of what he saw 
there changed his mind in that matter ; no amount of 
ignorance and social degradation could balance the hor- 
rors of the slave auction, especially as the few advan. 
tages that some of them had enjoyed for improvement 
and culture only tended to increase the wretchedness of 
the poor slaves. He was a man of ardent piety and ten- 
der feelings. His love to God wrought in him a love for 
all His people created in His image, and for whom He 
made the sacrifice of His Son for their salvation, there- 
fore, by the time he reached the hospitable mansion of 
the planter, he had prepared in his mind a sermon suited 
to the subject that he had seen illustrated at the slave 
auction. 

On his arrival great joy was expressed b}^ all the 1am- 
ilv ; negro bovs were mounted on horses and sent in all 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 139 

directions to give notice of a meeting to be held in the 
evening at the log meeting house in the woods, on the 

edge of the plantation. Mrs. P and her daughters, 

hapi^y in having the privilege of doing something for 
the missionary who had sacrificed so much in so good a 
cause, commenced making the aforesaid shirts, of which 
he was in sore need. When the hour for services to 
commence arrived, the house was filled with the planters 
and their families from all the country around. The 
missionary had not mentioned his morning's adven- 
ture — he felt troubled, and had a ship been there going 
to " Tarshish " he might possibly have been tempted to 
take a voyage in that direction, as did the prophet of 
old, but he was not the man to shirk responsibility. His 
text was Isaiah, Chapter 58, 6th verse : " Is not this the 
fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, 
to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, 
and that ye break every yoke ?" There were no short- 
hand reporters there, and no copy of the sermon is pre- 
served, but he was not the man to " daub with untem- 
pered mortar," and the reader is left to judge what kind 
of a discourse such a man would preach from such a 
text, having just witnessed a slave auction, and its effect 
on a slaveholding audience. 

Twenty years later the preacher would have been 
lynched, but at that time the ideas that prevailed in 
1776 were still held, even in the slave States — that 
slavery would be abolished gradually by all the States, 
therefore some of the slaveholders were pleased with the 
chastisement they had received, thinking it might do 

good, among whom was brother P himself ; but his 

wife and daughters saw it in another light. They were 
terribly indignant ; they would put up with no such 
meddling with their affairs, and gave notice that not an- 
other stitch would they take on those shirts. All this 



140 SKETCHES Oi'' THE 

Mr. R heard as they walked home through the 

woods, so on their arrival at the house, at 10 o'clock p. 

m., he asked for his horse. Mr. P remonstrated 

against his leaving that night, but the ladies grew more 

and more bitter in their denunciations, and Mr. P 

finall}^ ordered the horse, bidding our friend farewell 
with many apologies and regrets, and he started, leaving 
behind his unfinished shirts. Having finished his tour^ 
he arrived home some three months after, but said noth- 
ing about the above incident except to his wife, until 
some six months afterward, when he received from Mr. 
P^^ a letter to the following purport : 

Plantation near Charleston, S. C, ) 
January, 18 — . \ 

Dear BrotJier R ; It is impossible for me to ex- 
press my shame and regret at the inhospitable treat- 
ment you received at my house in July last, but much as 
I have suffered in view of those shameful transactions, it 
is more than compensated for by the glorious results. 
You cannot have forgotten the thrilling account you 
gave us of the agony of that slave mother whose infant 
child was torn from her arms and dashed upon the 
ground because the speculator who bought her would 
not buy the child, nor be burdened with it even as a gift. 
That scene seemed to be obliterated from the minds of 
the ladies present by your subsequent denunciations of 
the institution by which women are relieved of their 
burdens, though it also entails upon them untold sor- 
rows, hence the rude treatment you received, for which 
my wife and daughters n.ost humbly ask your forgive- 
ness. When you had been gone a few days, Mrs. P 

began to be haunted night and day by a recollection of 
your description of that scene, but said nothing about it 
until she awoke one night, screaming and greatly agi- 
tated. Seeming disinclined to tell what had frightened 
her, she again fell asleep, and again awoke still more agi- 
tated. She wept so as to be unable to talk for a long 
time, but when she could speak, she said; " Is it possible 
that such scenes ever transpire as were described by 
Elder R ? " " Yes," I said, " they are common. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 141 

Why ? what made you think of that now ? " She re- 
plied : " I have dreamed twice to-night that I witnessed 
the sale at auction of our Mary. They made her stand 
on a table, and all the men present were allowed to 
handle her in the most shameful and immodest manner, 
which seemed to give her the most excruciating torture, 
but she bore it without a word until they tore her baby 
from her and dashed it into a corner of the room, when 
she fell from the table in convulsions, while the men 
laughed and urged on the sale of others. Oh, my God, 
forgive me ! I shall never dare to go to sleep again 
while we own a slave," — and she. never did. 

The next morning I went to Charleston and manu- 
mitted all our people. * They are now our hired ser- 
vants. We have learned already that free paid labor is 
cheaper than slave labor, besides the happiness which 
comes of doing right. I have not before conceived it 
possible to enjoy, in this life, the happiness that this act 
of justice has brought into our house. I believe if all 
our people could be made to realize the joy of doing 
right, by undoing a most terrible wrong, they would do 
as I have done. The sense of safety and peace, no pat- 
rol in our streets, no weapons under our pillows, no fear 
of insurrection, no fearful looking for judgment. Oh ! 
my dear sir ! if I could but hope to see the day when, in 
all our country, all men shall live together as brothers, 
when we shall have equal rights before the law, so that 
the poor and ignorant shall have protection against op- 
pression from the more intelligent and wealthy classes, 
my fciith in the stability of our institutions, and the 
ability of our government to sustain itself, would be un- 
bounded. Remembering with Christian affection your 
faithfulness and moral courage, I remain. Yours, &c. 

When alluding to these incidents, the old gentleman 
used to say, " since then I have never smoothed off the 
corners of truth to save my shirts." These incidents, re- 
lated in his pathetic language, made a deep impression 
on my mind in childhood, but much would have escaped 
my memory had I not heard them repeated by his widow 



*At that time the laws of South Carolina did not forbid emanci- 
pation. 



142 SKETCHES OF THE 

just before she died, some years ago, in Fredonia, where 
some of his family still reside. Some of the children 
who sat around the old gentleman, and listened to his 
relation of the above and other equall}^ interesting 
stories, have since been among the most active agents of 
the U. G. R. R. Some of them Avere engaged in the 
" Jerry rescue," one of them is now stumping the State of 
Illinois for Grant & Colfax, and for their zeal in the 
cause of God and humanity, loyalty and liberty, much 
is due to the impressions fixed in their minds while 
sitting, at the feet of that good man. 



t 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, 143 



CHAPTER XX. 

REV. J. W. LOGUEN HIS TRIAL AND RELEASE LECTURES 

IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY UNEXPECTED CORROBORA- 
TION. 

The great central depot of the institution in this State 
was in Onondaga County, where a great many fugi- 
tives were protected, fed and clothed, and sent on their 
way rejoicing by that noble man. Rev. J. W. Loguen. 
Mr. Loguen was himself a fugitive. I am not able to re- 
late the particular incidents of his escape, though I have 
heard him lecture several times, as he said little about 
himself or his personal adventures. He is respected and 
beloved by all classes in Syracuse, where he has lived 
many years, and no other man could have done so much 
for the U. G. R. R. as he did, yet his friends did not 
deem it safe for him to remain there after the enactment 
of the fugitive slave law, but he could not be induced to 
leave. He was arrested for setting that law at defiance, 
and aiding in the rescue of the slave Jerry, and was tried 
for the offense in Albany. The jury disagreed, and he 
was tried again in Canandaigua, with the same result. 
The man who claimed him as a slave knew where he 
was, and Mr. Loguen's friends feared that he would be 
seized by government officials when beyond the protec- 
tion of the friends who surrounded him at his home, but 
he always said that " he apprehended no danger ; if the 
old man wanted him he hoped he would come himself, 
but if he thought it best to send so^nebody else, it was alL 



144 SKETCHES OP THE 

the same to him. He was not going to Canada or to 
Tennessee, nor would he ask the aid of his friends, but 
he gave notice to all concerned that he should trust in 
Loguen and in Providence for protection, and principally 
and first of all in Loguen." 

When the Presidential campaign of 1852 was in pro- 
gress, Mr. Loguen was invited to speak in a certain vil- 
lage in Chautauqua Co.,^on the lake shore. He had a 
large audience, and delivered an eloquent address. 
Some person asked him to relate his adventures in mak- 
ing his escape from slavery. He respectfully declined 
saying anything about himself, but spoke of the suffer- 
ings endured by his sister, which he witnessed, but could 
do nothing to protect her. Because she would not sub- 
mit to his brutal conduct, her master tied her thumbs 
together, and with a cord over a pulley, drew her up 
until she stood on her toes, then whipped her bare back 
until she fainted. As soon as she could go she ran away. 
The old fellow overtook her ten miles from home, tied a 
rope around her neck and made her run home. When 
she became exhausted and fell, he would drag her by the 
neck, then wait until she could stand up and start again. 
This was a pretty hard stor}', and it was not strange that 
the audience did not all believe it. When Mr. Loguen 
sat down, a man arose and said he did not believe the 
story, and denounced the speaker for uttering the slan- 
der. After he sat down, a gentleman near the door arose 
and said he should like to say a few words. He began 
by saying that he lived in Stewart Co., Tennessee, near 
Cumberland, where the speaker said he came from, and 
where his sister was so shockingly abused. He should 
have said nothing but for the remarks of the last 
speaker, who doubted the statement of Mr. Loguen 
" but," said he, " having lived in Tennessee all my life, I 
.regret to have to say that I do not doubt the story. He 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 145 

told it as no man could have told it who had not seen it. 
I would not say that such cruelty is common, but it is 
too frequent not to be known to any man who has lived 
among slaves. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing 
a stranger to indorse the veracit}^ of the speaker." Of 
course, Mr. Loguen's 'character was vindicated, for the 
man was a slaveholder, and even a Democrat could not 
object to his testimony. 

At the close of the meeting the last named gentleman 
sought an interview with Mr. Loguen, and told him that 
he was stopping in town over night, and learning that a 
colored man was going to speak, he had come to hear 
what he had to say, " and," he said, " I could do no less 
than I did, as the people here seem to know nothing of 
our ways." After talking awhile about men and things 
in Tennessee, he asked Mr. Loguen the name of the man 
he had lived with in Cumberland. Mr. Loguen declined 
answering the question, when the gentleman said, " You 
need have no fear of me, I shall not hurt you." " I pre- 
sume not," said Loguen, " but since the fugitive slave 
law was passed my friends advise me to go to Canada, or 
to some place where I am not known as a fugitive, but I 
am going to stay where I choose to stay, and go where I 
choose to go, and I hope no one will ever try to enforce 
that law on me, not that I fear anything for myself, but 
somebody will get hurt" 

Large rewards in cash and political honors awaited 
the delivery of Loguen in Tennessee, and there were 
Democrats enough who wanted them, but nobody ever 
got the rewards, for both Loguen and Providence stood in 
the wa}'. Loguen was a prophet, a type of our times, 
and has lived to seethe prophecy fulfilled. "The lost 
cause" offered all the offices and all the treasure of 
the nation for the delivery of all the people, both white 
and black, into the hands of the slave power, but Grant 
19 



146 SKETCHES OF THE 

& Colfax stood in the way ; the nation is safe ; nobody 
will be hurt. 

The remote influences that have worked in the hearts 
of the people, leading on to their final results in estab- 
lishing the U. G. R. R., as related briefly in this sketch, 
were suggested to my memory by* the open declaration 
by the party of Seymour and Blair in the South, that 
their election would restore to them all that they fought 
for in the rebellion, and inaugurate all the barbarities of 
slavery. Can Christians, then, vote for such men ? Can 
they speak, act, and vote in favor of annulling the word 
of God and our Declaration of Independence ? Not un- 
less their souls are so encased in copper that no ray of 
light has illuminated them in these many years. The 
election of Grant is liberty and peace. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 



147 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE SOUTHERN U. G. R. R. IT's USE DURING THE WAR— 

A UNION prisoner's EXPERIENCE ESCAPING FROM AN- 
DERSONVILLE, 

It has been hinted that the lines of this road were ex- 
tended from time to time, until they reached far into 
the slave States, and that the experience and informa- 
tion of the conductors enabled them to render aid to our 
soldiers when escaping from rebel prisons, that could not 

have been had from any other source. W. E was 

one of a large lot of prisoners who were put into that 
horrible pen at Andersonville. He enlisted in a regi- 
ment that went from northern Illinois under General 
Hurlbut, though he was born, and lived until he was 
sixteen years old, in Perrysburgh, Cattaraugus Co. I 
knew him well — the last time I saw him was at Belvi- 
dere, 111., soon after his return. When he entered the 
prison at twenty years of age, few men could boast of a 
more hardy constitution, but he was starved to a mere 
skeleton, reduced from 172 pounds weight to less than 
70 pounds. He reached home, but never recovered. He 
died soon after, and said he should have died in prison 
had he not "determined he umdd not;" his indomitable 
" pluck " kept him alive. The brutalities inflicted on 
the prisoners, and the systematic starvation to which 
they were subjected by the Southern Democrats who 
came up to New York to aid Northern Copperheads in 
making a platform and nominating candidates for Presi- 



148 SKETCHES Oi" THE 

dent and Vice-President, defy description. The scanty 
rations, less than one sixth the amount required to sus- 
tain men in healthy condition, often consisted of raw 
corn, or what is still worse, corn and cobs ground to- 
gether, and no fuel was allowed to cook it. Then they 
would place small sticks of wood just over the dead line ; 

one day one of E 's comrades reached across the fatal 

line to get a stick to use in cooking his cob meal ; the 
crack of a gun was heard, and the body of the poor fel- 
low lay stretched across the line, from whence his com- 
rades could not remove him without subjecting them- 
selves to the same penalty. The camp was surrounded 
with timber, but they were never allowed a quarter of a 
supply for cooking, still less to keep them warm in win- 
ter. They were without tents or shelter of any kind. 
Had they been allowed the privilege they would have 
brought timber from the woods and made shanties for 
themselves, but this was denied them. Several men 
were shot in trying to reach across the dead line to get a 
little dean water, none fit to use being within reach else- 
where. 

Great numbers of these unfortunate prisoners had 
been stripped of their boots and all their clothing, and 
received in return a ragged shirt and pants, without 
blanket or overcoat, with no shelter whatever. They 
dug holes in the ground to keep warm in, from whence 
they were often driven out by water on stormy nights, 
and as the result, thirty dead bodies were often gathered 
up in the morning. No class of human beings have 
be^n found in any country, claiming to be civilized, who 
have been guilty of such horrid atrocities, except in 
communities where slavery existed, and strange as it 
may seem, it is always the oppressor and not the op- 
pressed who suffers this moral degradation, as will be 
seen in the relation of a few incidents. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 149 

Our friend W. E never succeeded in escaping 

from prison ; he was released at the close of the war, but 
some escaped, and after several weeks were re-captured 
and returned to prison. One of them in relating his ad- 
ventures, said ; " We crossed the Saluda River and lay 
in the woods until dark ; then in trying to find the road 
to Greenville, passing a gate we heard some one call out, 
' Who's dar ? ' Presuming it was a negro, we stopped, 
and one of the party went to see who it was and inquire 
the way. It was an old negro woman. AVhen she saw 
us she said, ' You's Yanks, 'scaped fi'om prison. I 
seen 'em 'fore, and feed 'em, but now I'm gwine to de 
riber and can't go back.' She directed them on the road 
to Greenville, and said, 'Go careful, make no noise.* 
About three miles farther on we met an old negro who 
had started to go some ten miles to spend the Sabbath 
with his wife. I asked him if he had ever heard of the 
Yankees. ' Yes,' said he, ' we hear bout dem people. 
Massa G — — tell us berj^ bad tings bout dem, but can't 
tell bout dat ar after all,' ' Did you ever see any of 
them ? ' ' No, widout you is some.' ' If I should tell you 
that we are Yankees, would you believe it, and would 
you give us something to eat ? ' "' Ob course I would be- 
lieve you ; go with me.' He went back with us three 
miles, and after secreting us in the bushes he went away 
saying, ' I return in an hour, then I cough to let you 
know it's me. If anybody come and don't cough, keep 
bery still, dat ain't me.' In about an hour we heard some 
one coughing as if he were in the last stages of consump- 
tion. Presently the old man appeared, loaded with 
bread, bacon, sweet potatoes, and some salt. He then 
went two miles with us. Before he left us I asked him if 
he knew what the Yankees were doing for them. ' Oh, 
yes,' said he, ' we knows all 'bout dat. You's our frens. 
Massa Linkum make us all free by proclamation.' 



150 SKETCHES OF THE 

" ' Who is this ' Massa Linkum ' of whom you speak ? ' 

" ' He is d'e President who's been 'lected by de people, 
but the rebs refuse de knowledge ob it, and make Jeff 
Davis President.' 

" ' Don't you think Jeff Davis is abetter President than 
Lincoln ? ' 

" Shaking his head and exposing his ivor}-, he said, 
' Better nor Linkum, what's been 'lected by the people, 
what's 'titled to the posishun, what's made us all free ? 
Can't tell dese chiFn anyting 'bout dat. Dey knows all 
'bout it.' 

" This man's name was Frank. He had been willing 
to forego his visit to his wife, procured a large supply of 
food, went five miles with us on our way, and felt that 
he was more than paid in having had the privilege of 
doing a favor to ' Massa Linkum's sogers.'" 

After leaving the old man, keeping in the road, they 
went toward Greenville until two o^clock in the morning, 
when the}'' came suddenly on a negro in the road with a 
large bundle under his arm. He refused to tell what he 
had in his bundle, but on learning that they were Yan- 
kees, he said, ' I've had no meat in forty days. I got 
dese chickens for my Sunday dinner, but de Yankees are 
friends to us and we friends to dem. Now dem's my 
words, take 'em." Three or four days after this, becom- 
ing very hungry, they were on the lookout for negroes, 
knowing that there was no safety in apj)lyiag to any 
others. Having made a camp at daylight, one of them 
crept carefully toward a field, and soon saw five negroes 
come into the field and commence plowing. In going 
around they passed near him, and when he saw that 
there was no white man wnth them, he rapped on^the 
fence, whereupon they all stopped, and one of the neg- 
roes said, "Gor a mighty ! How comes you dar ? Who 
is ve ? whar ve come from ? " Cautioninp- them to 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 151 

make no noise, the narrator said, " I want to talk with 
one of you, and the rest keep about your work," The 
negroes appointed a man to tallc with him, and the rest 
went on with their work. Questioning the negro, he 
learned that his name was Phil ; that Phil's master was 
an officer, on duty in Charlesto*!!, " banking up against 
the Yankees," as Phil expressed it, where some of them 
had been killed and others wounded by the Yankee 
shells, " Well now, Phil," said our friend, " did you ever 
see a Yankee ? " 

"No, sah." 

"I suppose you think they are bad people ? " 

" No, sah. De Yankees is de friends ob de black peo- 
ple." 

"How do you know that the, Yankees are your 
friends ? " 

" Oh, we hear massa talking 'bout it. He call 'em 
d d abolitionists. We knows what dat means." 

" What do you understand by an abolitionist ? " • 

"Means de — de year ob jubilee am comin', when we's 
all gwine to be free." 

" Well, Phil, that is a very good definition ; but who 
told you that you are to be made free ? " 

" Oh, we gets it." 

" Well, Ph'il, I am a Yankee ; can you do anything 
for me ? " 

" I knowed ye was. Do any ting ? what ye want 
done ? I can do ebery ting ? " 

" I want something to eat, and there are more of us. 
How many can you feed." 

" I can feed an army of ye," said Phil. Phil was get- 
ting excited. 

With extreme caution they crept through the bushes 
to where they had camped for the day. Some conversa- 
tion was had in which Phil asked anxiouslv if the slaves 



152 SKETCHES OF THE 

were really going to be made free, and being assured that 
Lincoln's proclamation had made them all free, and that 
a million of them had their liberty already, he said, 
"^Massa says you are gwine to sell us all to Cuba, but we 
don't believe it." " No, Phil, not one of you will be sold. 
We are going to make men of you ; send your children 
to school, and teach you to read. Now, Phil, is this a 
safe place for us to stay?" "Yes," said Phil, "if you 
keeps bery still. I comes to-night and brings you to a 
better place, and gibs you all de provisions you want." 
He bounded away, and well nigh forgot himself in 
singing, 

" De kingdom am a comin' 
And de year ob jubilee." 

One of the party called to him and said, " ^till, my 
boy, stUiy " Oh, yes sah, I forgot," and he was soon out of 
sight. Phil was as good as his word. He came to them 
as soon as it was dark, conducted them to an old house, 
brought them more food than ihej could eat and carry _ 
away, and also brought a negro shoemaker, who mended 
their shoes, and several old negroes to talk with them. 
When they started on late in the evening, Phil went 
with them. When out of hearing of those left in the 
house, Phil startled them with -the question, " Massa, 
does you tink you can find the way to Tennessee? 
Mighty long way dar, and ber}' crooked road, and now, 
I tinks you had .better take a guide wid you, to show you 
de way. I knows de way from heah to Knoxville." 
" No," they said, " we are prisoners of war, and liable to 
be caught any hour, and should we be caught and you 
be found with us, they would hang us all. Direct us the 
best route to go and we Avill take the risk. Your time 
will come soon, Pliil, you will be free. God bless you." 
Phil seemed to have a foreboding of trouble, and would 
willingly have risked his own life to help them on to 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 153 

Knoxville. Had he been allowed to go they might have 
avoided the ambush into which they fell the next day. 
They were sent back to prison, not, however, to Ander- 
sonville, for Sherman was already on his march to the 
sea, but they were sent to Columbia, and afterwards with 
other prisoners transferred from place to place until the 
final surrender at Appomattox. 

The first years of the war the lines were kept open 
along the Shenandoah, through Maryland, through 
West Virginia, along the mountains in Tennessee, and 
wherever Union prisoners needed guides, but later in the 
war the raids of Stoneman, Sheridan and others had 
picked up and appropriated the most intelligent guides. 
Yet the time never came during the war when prisoners 
trying to escape were not safe for the time being in trust- 
ing themselves to the guidance of negroes. 



20 



154 SKETCHES OF THE 



CHAPTER XXIL 

FRIGHTENED MOSES EXPECTING TO BE KILLED AND 

EATEN BY ABOLITIONISTS, 

One thing was always observable, by which we knew 
a fugitive slave from an imposter, namely, a restless, 
sharp sense of danger, a sudden start if a person was 
heard approaching the house, while the opening of a 
door or the barking of a dog would produce in them in- 
tense excitement. 

One of our most active agents lived in the town of 
New Haven, Oswego Co., within sight of Lake Ontario, 
He was a farmer by the name of French, Going, one 
evening, to return his cows to the pasture, he saw a inan 
in the woods suddenly coming into siglit, and then try- 
ing to hide. Going towards him, the man moved off, 
but seemed unable to run from some cause. French ran 
towards him and told him to stop. As he approached 
he saw that the man was a negro, and thinking he was 
a fugitive, said to him, " Don't be afraid, I am an aboli- 
tionist ; " whereupon the poor fellow put forth all the 
strength he had to effect his escape, but it was a feeble 
effort, and he soon fell to the ground. When Mr. French 
came up to him the man began begging for his life, 
" Don't be frightened," said French, " we are all aboli- 
tionists in this neighborhood." " Yes, massa," said the 
negro, " but den ye see I'se good for nuffin, I'se so pore, 
only bones and skin ; I'se eat nuffin amost dese six 
weeks — do massa, let me lib ! " " Come with me," said 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 155 

Mr. French, " and I will feed you and take care of you," 
He tried to beg off, but was too weak to resist, and 
French took him home. Mrs. French prepared for him 
an excellent supper, but he could not be induced to taste 
of it. The sight of food seemed to distress him ; he was 
evidently starving, but was afraid to eat. It was a sin- 
gular case ; French could not understand it. He re- 
peatedly told him that they were all abolitionists, which 
frightened the negro almost out of his senses. Finally, 
Mrs. French made the remark that the slaves were some- 
times told that the abolitionists are cannibals. "Talk 
with him," said she, "and find out what he is afraid of." 
Mr, French talked kindly to him, telling how many fu- 
gitives he had assisted and vsent them to Canada, " Dey 
so pore," pleaded the negro, "dey good for nuffin ! I'se 
pore, too — do, massa, let me go ! " " Yes," said French, 
" I will send you to Canada, but you must stay here till 
you are able to go. You are starved ; eat something and 
go to sleep ; we will talk more about it in the morning." 
"No," he replied, "I rather die than be killed and eat 
up," French saw that some terrible fear was controlling 
the poor fellow, and determined to ascertain what it was. 
It required a long continued and patient effort to induce 
the negro to tell the cause of his fear. When he had 
done so his friends soon found means to dispel his fears, 
and he ate all that was deemed safe for him, and was put 
on a comfortable bed, from which he did not get up for 
many weeks. He was so far gone when French found 
him that one or two more days of starvation would have 
finished him. Had he not been taken in when he was, 
he must have- died in the woods. 

In Georgia, where Moses (he said they called hiniMose) 
lived, the slaves were partially educated. Theii- mothers 
taught them a short lesson in astronomy, namely, the 
position of the north star and how to find it. Their 



156 SKETCHES Oi*' THE 

masters lectured them on the manners and customs of 
dogs and men ; when one of them ran off he was hunted 
with dogs ; when batHed in the pursuit and the slave es- 
caped, the fact was never acknowledged, but the slaves 
were called together and told how the fugitive had been 
torn in pieces by the dogs and left to rot in the woods, 
and the occasion was generally improvedby telling them 
how much better it was for the poor negro to be killed 
by the dogs than it would have been to fall into the 
hands of the savage abolitionists, a kind of people living 
in the North, who, when they could catch a negro, would 
fatten him, if he would eat, and then kill and eat him. 
Such was their education. It will be readily understood, 
that there were two reasons why Moses, when found by 
our enterprising agent, was so nearly famished. First, 
his journey had been prolonged many weeks by his fear 
of falling into the hands of the abolitionists, so that he 
had gone all the way to the shore of Lake Ontario with- 
out having been seen by any of our agents ; and 
second, he thought that if he was very " pore " the can- 
nibal abolitionists would regard him as of no account, 
and let him go. It may be doubted that any slave was 
ever so ignorant as to believe such stories, but many of 
them have spoken of having been told the same thing, 
and it is not strange that some of them believed it. 
Moses had but a short ride on our cars, and shipped for 
Kingston, C. W., on a lumber vessel, from the mouth of 
Salmon River. 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 157 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ONEDA LACKOW'S FLIGHT PROM ALABAMA CAPTURE AND 

ESCAPE THE FAITHFUL DOG ^ — THE KIND-HEARTED 

jailer's wife GRADUATES FROM A SEMINARY AND 

GOES TO ENGLAND. 

Oneda Lackow was a servant in the house of her master 
on a plantation in Alabama, on the bank of the Mobile 
River. She seems to have been a favorite in the family, 
a sprightly, intelligent girl. Her features, hair and com- 
plexion would not have betrayed her as a slave except 
in a country where such slaves are common. Being a 
young lady's maid she had many opportunities for im- 
provement, and suffered few of the privations incident 
to the life of a slave. Instead of making her satisfied 
with her condition, the privileges she enjoyed served to 
make her feel more keenly the degradation of slavery, 
and she resolved, when not more than ten years of age, 
to escape to a land of freedom or die in the attempt. 
While she kept her purpose a secret, she av.iiled herself 
of every opportunity to obtain information that would 
be useful when she should start for some free country. 
Her young mistress had been educated in New England, 
and she often heard her talk about the free States. 
Oneda learned to read, and was shrewd enough to con- 
ceal the fact from her mistress, therefore she had fre- 
quent opportunities to read papers and study a map of the 
United States that hung in the hall. When she was 



158 SKETCHES OF THE 

twelve or thirteen years old, her master bi'ought home a 
young dog of the St. Bernard breed. His name was 
Prince, and he was trained to watch tijc premises. The 
first time she saw the great, clumsy looking puppy, she 
said to herself, (she told her plans to no one but herself,) 
" Now I'll pet this dog and make him love me, and some 
day we will escape together ; " so whenever opportunity 
favored she encouraged the children, both white and 
black, to tease Prince and abuse him, when she would 
come to the rescue, drive away the children, and then 
pet and feed him. She contrived to feed him such 
things as he liked best, and to play with him every day, 
and at night she v^^ould sometimes lie down by him on 
the piazza, lay her head on him and go to sleep, so that 
when Prince was two years old he would come or go at 
her bidding, though she was careful never to exercise 
her control of him in the presence of her master. When 
she was about fifteen years old she had laid down one 
evening on the porch with Prince, and happened to 
overhear a conversation between her master and a trader, 
and to her astonishment she learned that her market 
value was more than any two of the strongest men on 
the plantation, and that in a year or two more her mas- 
ter expected to obtain a much larger })rice for her. She 
had never been treated harshly, yet the degradation of 
her condition was seldom absent from her thoughts. 
Not many da3^s after the incident above related, her 
master and mistress went to Mobile to be absent a week. 
The next night, when all was still about the house, 
Oneda, with a little package containing a few articles of 
clothing and some food, w^ent silently out of the house, 
and passing near to where Prince was lying, he followed 
her. She took a road leading west towards the Mobile 
<fe Ohio R. R., then striking a road running directly 
north, she turned into it and went on all night. Prince 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 159 

became excited, and tried in his mute wa}'^ to induce her 
to turn back, though he seemed to be determined to go 
with her wherever she might go. 

It would be interesting to follow this heroic girl 
through her long, lonely journey through Alabama, 
Tennessee, and Kentucky to the Ohio River, sometimes 
camping in woods and swamps in the daytime, and tra- 
veling by the north star in the night, occasionally find- 
ing, a resting place in a negro's cabin, hungry, weary and 
footsore. With no companion but her faithful dog, with 
no thought of turning back or of stopping short of free- 
dom, she went on for three long months. She was often 
in great danger of being arrested and sent back, but, 
sometimes by the aid of her faithful escort, Prince, some- 
times aided by negroes, and once or twice by kind- 
hearted white women, she eluded her pursuers and ar- 
rived safely in Ohio, having been once captured and 
escaped again in Kentucky. Some of her adventures 
are woi'thy of notice, one or two of which I will relate. 

She was near the mountain passes in Kentucky, hav- 
ing been traveling nearly eleven weeks, and was already 
near the Southern terminus of the U. G. R. R., Mdien, 
driven by hunger, she went into a house in a lonely 
place, hoping to find it occupied by negroes, but was dis- 
appointed in finding a white woman. She noticed a 
singular expression in the woman's countenance when 
Prince followed her into the house, but was too hungry 
and tired to think much of it. She asked for food, and 
the woman gave her something to eat, which she divided 
with Prince. The woman noticed her shoes, and said to 
her, " Your shoes are worn out," and stepping into an- 
other room she said, " come in here and see if these will 
fit 3'^ou. If you can wear them I'll give them to you." 
She went in, and as Prince was following her, the woman 
shut the door against him, locked the door, and put the 



160 SKETCHES OF THE 

I 

key in her pocket ; then taking a clothes line that hung 
in the room, she said, " you must stay here until my man 
comes home, and to make a sure thing of it, I must tie 
j^our feet and hands." She was a great, coarse creature, 
and the child knew that resistance would avail nothing, 
while her voice and manner gave no encouragement to 
appeal for pity, but she thought of Prince and began 
calling him, screaming as loud as she could. Prince 
howled and scratched at the door, to which the woman 
paid no attention, but took hold 'of her and began ar- 
ranging the cords. Oneda resisted with what strength 
she had, and they both fell upon the floor, when, with 
an awful yell, Prince came crashing through a window, 
breaking glass and sash, and seized the woman by the 
throat. The contest had been unequal before Prince 
took part in it, and it was no less so now. Prince had 
the advantage, and would have made an end of it at 
once, but Oneda said, " Easy, Prince, hold on there ; " she 
then said to the woman, " Don't resist, if you do he will 
kill you." She had her enemy somewhat as Grant had 
Buckner at Donelson, terms " unconditional surrender." 
"Now," said she to the woman, "you must submit to me. 
If you are quiet while I use these cords it will be well 
for you, but if you stir up strife here Prince will inter- 
fere, and if he gets hold of you again I may not be able 
to restrain him. You must lie still while I say to you a 
few words, and first of all, let me tell you that the grip 
of Prince's. jaws on your neck is a pleasant pastime for 
you, compared with the suffering you propose to inflict 
on me ; and the bondage that you must submit to will be 
but for a day, whereas you would bind me in slavery for 
life." She then tied her hands behind her back and her 
feet together, and filled her mouth with an apron to pre- 
vent her from calling for help. " Now," said she, " you 
are in bondage ; I won't ask you how you like it, but I 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 161 

' reckon ' you will be an abolitionist by the time your 
'man ' comes home." She found on a shelf some crusts 
of bread and scraps of cold meat, which she wrapped in 
a newspaper that she found in the room, and started off". 
She had become weak from hunger and exposure, but 
her fears seemed to give her new strength. The road 
was lonely, passing ravines in the hills and woods ; when 
she saw anybody in the road she hid herself until they 
had passed by and then ran forward, until late in the 
day, when she turned away from the road and sat down 
to rest. On opening her package of food to feed Prince, 
she saw at the head of an advertisement a wood cut, the 
figure of a slave escaping, and read as follows : 

$450 REWARD. 

Ran away from my plantation on the Mobile River, 
thirty miles from the city of Mobile, my slave girl, 
Oneda. She left on the 3d of June, 185 — , and took with 
her a very large black dog. The girl is fifteen years of 
age, has long hair, brown eyes, and brunette complexion, 
ratiier less than medium size, but remarkabl}' well 
formed, smiles when she speaks and shows a dimple in 
her left cheek, is very intelligent, and is supposed to be 
able to read. Any person who will capture and secure 
them in any jail south of the Ohio River, so that I can 
get them, will receive |300 reward, and if carefully han- 
dled so that tlie dog he not maimed nor the 'person of the girl 
disfigured, $150 will be added to the above reward. 

James L . 

The paper was directed to J. Tice, Piketon, Pike Co., 
Ky. " This explains it all," said Oneda. " That will do, 
my brother, your powers of description are truly re- 
markable — ^ is supposed to be able to 7'ead' — of course she 
can read, and then, too, you appeal to the sordid instincts 
of a brutal slave catcher, to save me from physical suffer- 
ing, while you, regardless of fraternal relationship, would 
degrade my humanity, and hold in base chattel slaver}^ 
•21 



162 SKETCHES OF TIIK 

your own sister. I'll take care of this," said she, as she 
put the paper in her pocket. " Prince, my good fellow, 
come here — lie down by me and keep me warm. You 
are not my brother, Prince, you are only a dog, Pve 
read somewhere that in Turkey they call Christians 
dogs ; I wonder if dogs are ever Christians. Oh, Prince ! 
w^hat is the difference betwixt you and me?" Her soli- 
loquy was cut short by Prince ; he sprang up and took 
an attitude of defense, looked around at her with a low 
whine, and then was about to spring forward. She spoke 
to him and he came close to her side and licked her face ; 
she looked up and saw a man not moie than forty feet 
off, holding a blood-hound by a rope and a rifle on his 
shoulder. She sprang to her feet, and putting her hand 
on Prince's head, she exclaimed, " Stand off, or Prince 
shall kill both you and j^our dog ! " Making instant 
preparations to use his gun, he said, " We'll talk this 
matter over. You see I have a right smart chance of 
advantage. Here are two of us and two dogs, and then 
you see, here is this gun. I have come after you, and I 
reckon you are a sensible girl, and will go along with me 
without compelling me to shoot that dog." Oneda saw 
the point at once, and proposed to surrender, though not 
without conditions. After a long pa-ley it was agreed 
that she should be taken to the Piketon jail, and that 
Prince should remain with her. He then untied his 
hound and sent him home. It was now almost dark, 
and as they went toward the town, which was not far off, 
she said, "This is Mr. Tice, I suppose." "Yes," said he, 
" Jake Tice, known from the Ohio River to the gulf as 
the great slave catcher. Ye see, this is the run-wa}^, and 
if a slave runs off they just sead the papers to me. If 
ye'd knowed that I reckon ye'd 'a gone the other side of 
the mountain." "Have you just come from home?" 
asked Oneda. " Yes," said Tice, " I jest ondid the old 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 163 

woman, and let loose her jaw, and wasn't she mad, do 
you think ? Wal, she wasn't — that is, not much. She 
was mighty sorry for ye, but then ye see, there was the 
$300, and more, too, on conditions, ye know, and busi- 
ness has been mighty dull all summer. She said you had 
but just started, and I could follow your track with the 
old hound, 'but you must tie him,' said the old woman, 
* or somebody will get killed sure.' " " T was sorry," said 
Oneda, "to have to do as I did, but I could not help it." 
It was with great difficulty that she walked to the town, 
and when they got there, Randall, the jailer, asked Tice 
to stay till morning, and then they would write to Mr. 

L to come after his slave. Tice was an easy going 

fellow, and boasted that he never did a cruel thing when 
he could avoid it. Randall's family lived in the jail, 
and Tice said to Mrs. Randall, "This poor child is tired 
out and starved. You give her a good supper and let 
her sleep on a bed ; we won't lock her in a cell to-night." 
Mrs. Randall objected at first, saying she would not 
be responsible for her safe keeping. Tice, laughing, 
said " her Prince would see to that." In the morning 
Tice and the jailer went into the office and wrote a letter, 
notifying her master that Oneda and Prince were both 
safe in Pike County jail, but before mailing the letter 
they went to her room and she was gone. Mrs. Randall 
could give no account of her ; she had put her in bed as 
directed, and that was all she could say about it ; if she 
had got away she was glad of it, for, said she, " that girl 
has no more right to be a slave than I have. She is 
whiter than any of us." A blood-hound was procured 
and taken to her room, and after smelling around, ho 
took her track, being led b}-- a cord, and went directly to 
the west fork of the Big Sandy, which runs through the 
town. Beyond that the hound could find no track, and 
it was decided that she must have taken a light skiff that 



164 SKETCHES Oi'^ THE 

usually laid at the crossing and gone down the river, 
and two hours after the boat was found capsized among 

some rocks below the rapids. So the letter to Mr. L 

was burned up and Tice went home. 

In the back yard of the jail there was a pit where a 
well had been commenced a long time ago, and aban- 
doned for some cause when about eight feet deep. It 
was covered over with boards, and a short ladder had 
been left standing in it. After all was still about the 
premises, Mrs. Randall carried blankets and old clothes 
into it, and then went into Oneda's room. After awhile 
they went out, walked to the river, sent the skiff adrift 
and returned, went through the house, and Oneda and 
Prince went into the pit, after which Mrs. Randall care- 
fully replaced the boards. She kept them well supplied 
with food for ten days, and then sent them towards Ohio 
by an old negro who lived alone just out of town, and 
was often absent for a week or two without being missed. 
Thenceforth she was hungry no more, nor did she travel 
without a guide. The U. G. R. R. took her direct to 
Canada by way of Cleveland, and by steamboat to Mai- 
den. After spending a few months in the Wilberforce 
Colony, Oneda returned to Ohio for the purpose of 
attending school. Prince was left in Canada, having be- 
come domesticated in a kind family. Oneda graduated 
at a popular seminary in Ohio, and then went to Eng- 
land, taking with her letters of introduction from the 
professors of the seminary. When on her way to New 
York, Avhere she was to embark, she spent a week at our 
house. 



In these brief sketches, no attempt has been made to 
give more than an outline of a few incidents connected 
with each case, and of many thousands who escaped 



UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 165 

from slavery by the aid of the U. G. R. R., only some 
twenty or thirty have been alluded to. Of what they 
suffered before they started, little has been written. 
Their heroic achievements in effecting their escape 
against the terrible odds arrayed against them, and their 
enterprise and success in establishing for themselves 
homes, schools and churches, challenges the admiration 
of all o'ood men. 



APPENDIX. 



JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS. 
[From the Kansas Magazine.] 

Some time in the suminer of 1850, John Brown was 
conducting a band of fugitives from Missoui-i, through 
Kansas and Nebraska, into Iowa, intending to reach 
Canada by the Chicago and Detroit road. By some 
means, not now recollected, the information was convey- 
ed to the city of Atchison that Brown and his escort were 
encamped on a small tributai-y of the Grasshopper river, 
in Jackson county, about 20 miles from Atchison. The 
proslavery Democrats thought this a favorable oppor- 
tunity to strike a blow for the party, capture the man 
whose influence, courage and military genius had creat- 
ed a panic throughout Missouri, recover the fugitive 
property and teach the universal Yankee nation doirn east 
a lesson that was sadly needed, and getting more im- 
portant every day. 

An impromptu meeting was held rather quietly, and 
about a dozen young braves who were known to be 
*'!=ound on the goose," and who were always "ready for 
a fight or a foot race," were selected to make a raid on 
John Brown, capture him and his negroes, and convey 
them back to Missouri. 

Horses and revolvers were furnished by those who 
instigated the movement, and these redoubtable warriors 
marched forth "in all the pomp and circumstance of 



APPENDIX. 



16t 



glorious war.'' The noble bearing of these gallant 
knights, the curveting of their fiery steeds, the tinkling 
of the little bells on their heels, were all calculated to 
inspire pride and hope in the bosoms of the friends who 
had sent them forth on this expedition. 

The old proverb, that "you can't catch a weasel 
asleep," was verified in this instance. Brown was ap- 
prised of their approach, and was ready to receive this 
warlike demonstration. The assailants had made a 
reconnoissance of Brown's camp, and thereupon had 
resolved to attack with both cavalry and infantry, so a 
number had dismounted and fastened their horses to 
contiguous saplings, just inside of Brown's pickets. The 
cavalry were to move forward and attack the tent and 
wagons, where it was supposed, as no one was seen 
around the camp, the game was asleep, capture all they 
could, while the infantry stood ready to shoot down any 
fugitives who might endeavor to escape. " Forward !" 
shouted the leader of the horse, and a slight movement 
forward was made, " Halt !" said Brown's men, as they 
arose from the bush where they had been concealed, and 
closing in upon their assailants, shouted aloud, " Dis- 
mount and throw down your arms or you will be shot 
down in a moment." This sudden 'and unexpected 
change in the programme seemed for a moment to be- 
wilder the assailants, and to throw them into a panic, 
for the order to ground their arms was instantly obeyed 
by the infantry, when the cavalry, realizing the condi-" 
tion of things, began to think, like Falstaff, "discretion 
was the better part of valor," and, applying their spurs 
energetically to their steeds, turned and fled inglorious- 
ly, leaving their friends to get out of the scrape as best 
they could. These latter were, all but one, taken prison- 
ers by Brown's party. This one, seeing the black 
soldiers about to surround him, and finding that he was 



168 APPENDIX. 

in peril of being deserted by his friends, made a spring 
at the extremity of one of the flying horses and actually 
seized the appendage aforesaid, and there he clung like 
Tom O'Shanter's witch, and so escaped. 

Soon after this disastrous and bloodless defeat of the 
assaulting party. Brown, securing his prisoners, struck 
his tents and moved into Nebraska, carrying his prison- 
ers with him. Here a council of war was held, and 
some of the party were for shooting or hanging the 
prisoners, but Brown, whose philanthropic feelings, 
would not permit him to shed human blood, prevailed 
on his comrades to spare their lives, remarking that, 
although they were scarcely fit to live, they were not 
fit to die, and to spare their lives would give them time 
to repent hereafter. 

One of the party was a young physician from Atch- 
son, a wild, rattling, devil-may-care kind of a fellow, 
always ready for an adventure that promised either ex- 
citement or sport, but who really had nothing very bad 
in his composition. Brown took him under his special 
care. As has been hinted heretofore, Brown was of a re- 
ligious turn, and, whether at home or encamped on the 
wide prairie, had always an altar erected in his house 
or tent, at which it was required that all present must 
engage in worship. One evening when about to retire 
he called upon the doctor to offer up a prayer. 
. "By G — ," said the doctor, in language more profane 
than polite, " 1 cah't pray." 

" Did your mother never teach you to pray ?" inquired 
Brown. 

" O, yes," said the doctor ; " but that was a long time 
ago." 

" But you still remember the prayer she taught you ?" 
said Brown. 

" Yes." 



APPENDIX. 169 

" Well, then, in absence of any better one, say that," 
said Brown. And the doctor actually repeated before 
black and white of the camp that night, the very famil- 
iar nurser}'- invocation of " Now I lay me down to sleep,'' 
etc., to the great amusement of his fellow prisoners and 
all others present. 

On his return home he related all the circumstances, 
and many others of an interesting nature now forgotten. 
He stated in his usual strong language that John Brown 
was the best man that he had ever known, and knew 
more about religion than any one he had ever seen. 
When asked if Brown had ever used him badly, or used 
any harsh language toward them while they were with 
him, he said " No ;" that they were all treated like gen- 
tlemen ; had the same fare as the others, "but it did go a 
little hard and against the grain to eat with and be 
guarded by the d d niggers." 

After detaining his prisoners for several days, during 
which he taught them some lessons in morals, he was 
about to send them home on foot and claim their horses 
as articles contraband of war, but on the fact being made 
known that the animals upon which they had ridden 
were not their own, but belonged to other parties in 
Atchison, Brown gave them their horses and dismissed 
them with the sage admonition that they should never 
undertake to do anything until they first learned how to 
do it, and never- try to perform an action without calcu- 
lating the exact amount of opposition to be overcome. 



•22 



170 APPENDIX. 



FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 



For many years Frederick Douglass refused to relate 
the history of his escape from slavery, fearing that those 
friends from whom he received aid might be injured 
thereby ; but in his book " My Bondage and Freedom," 
he gives us a very interesting account of his escape from 
the bondage of sin, and how he was helped on his way 
by a good old colored man named Lawson, Although 
he was but a child he could read better than his old 
friend, so he taught him " the letter " while the old man 
taught him "the spirit." We have taken the liberty to 
quote from the aforesaid very interesting autobiography 
the following brief extract : 

Previous to my contemplation of the anti-slavery 
movement, and its probable results, my mind had been 
seriously awakened to the subject of religion. I was not 
more than thirteen years old, when I felt the need of 
God, as a father and protector. My religious nature was 
awakened by the preaching of a white Methodist minis- 
ter, named Hanson. He thought that all men, great 
and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of 
God ; that they were, by nature, rebels against His gov- 
ernment ; and that they must repent of their sins, and 
be reconciled to God through Christ. I cannot say that 
r had a very distinct notion of what was required of me ; 
but one thing I knew very well — I was wretched, and 
liad no means of making myself otherwise. Moreover, 
1 knew that I could pray for light. I consulted a good 
colored man, named Charles Johnson ; and, in tones of 
holy affection, he told me to pray, and what to pray for. 
1 was, for weeks, a poor, broken-hearted mourner, trav- 
eling through the darkness and misery of doubts and 
fears. I finally found that change of heart which comes 
by " casting all one's care" upon God, and by having 
faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and 
Savior of those who diligently seek Him. 

After this I saw the world in a new light. I seemed 
to live in a new world, surrounded by new objects, and 
to be animated by new hopes and desires. I loved all 
mankind — slaveholders not excepted ; though I ab- 



APPENDIX. 171 

liorred slavery more than ever. My great concern was^, 
now, to liave the world converted. The desire loi- 
knowledge increased, and especially did I want a thor- 
ough acquaintance with the Bible. I have gathered 
scattered pages from this holy book, from the filthy 
street gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, 
that in the moments of my leisure I might get a word 
or two of wisdom from them. While thus religiously 
seeking knowledge, I became acquainted with a good 
old colored man, named Lawson. A more devout man 
than he, I never saw. He drove a dray foi" Mr. James 
Ramsey, the owner of a rope-walk on Fell's Point, Balti- 
more. This man not only prayed three times a day, but 
he prayed as he walked through the streets, at his work 
— on his dray — everywhere. His life w.as a life of 
prayer, and his" words, (when he spoke to his friends,) 
were about a better world. Uncle Lawson lived neai- 
Master Hugh's house ; and, becoming deeply attached 
to the old man, I went often with him to prayer-meet- 
ing, and spent much of my leisure time with him on 
Sunday. The old man could read a little, and I was a 
great help to him in making out the hard words, for 1 
was a better reader than he. I could teach him ''//«- 
Idter" but he could teach me ''tltc .spirit ;" and higli, re- 
freshing times we had together, in singing, praying and 
glorifying God. These meetings with Uncle Lawson 
went on for a long time, without the knowledge of 
Master Hugh or my mistress. Both knew, however, 
that I had become religious, and they .-eemed to respect 
my conscientious piety. My mistress was still a profc^- 
sor of religion, and belonged to class. Her leader was 
no less a person than the Rev Beverly Waugh, the pre- 
siding elder, and now one of the Bishops of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. Mr. Waugh was then stationed 
over Wilk street church. I am careful to state these 
facts, that the reader may be able to form an idea of the 
precise influences which had to do with shaping and di- 
recting my mind. 

In view of the cares and anxieties incident to the life 
she was then leading, and, especially, in view" of the 
separation from religious associations to which she was 
subjected, my mistress hud, as 1 have before stated, be- 
come lukewarm, and needed to be looked U{) by lier 



172 APPENDIX, 

leader. This brouglit Mr. Waugh to our house, and 
gave me an opportunity to hear him exhort and pray. 
But my chief instructor in matters of religion, was Uncle 
Lawson. Pie was my spiritual father ; and I loved him 
intensely, and was at his house every chance I got. 

This pleasure was not long allowed me. Master Hugh 
became averse to my going to Father Lawson's, and 
threatened to whip me if I ever went there again. I 
now felt myself persecuted by a wicked man ; and I 
iijould go to Father Lawson's, notwithstanding the threat. 
The good old man had told me that the " Lord had a 
great work for me to do ;" and I must prepare to do it ; 
and that he had been shown that I must preach the 
gospel. His words made a deep impression on my 
mind, and I verily felt that some such work was before 
me, though 1 could not see how I should ever engage in 
its performance. "The good Lord," he said, "would 
bring it to pass in his own good time," and that I must 
go on reading and studying the scriptures. The advice 
and suggestions of Uncle Lawson were not without their 
influence upon ray character and destiny. He threw 
my thoughts into a channel from which they have never 
entirely diverged. He fanned my already intense love 
of knowledge into a flame, by assuring me that I was to 
be a useful man in the world. When I would say to 
him, "How can these things be — and w^hat can /do?" 
his simple repl}^ was, " Trust in the Lord." When I told 
him that "I was a slave, and a slave for, life," he said, 
"the Lord can make you free, my dear. All things are 
possible with Him, only have faith, in God." "Ask, and 
it shall be given." "If you want liberty," said the good 
old man, "ask the Lord for it in faith, and he will give 

IT TO YOU." 

Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration 
of hope, I worked and prayed with a, light heart, be- 
lieving that my life was under the guidance of a wisdom 
higher than my own. With all other blessings sought 
at the mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of 
His great jnerc}', and in His own good time, deliver me 
from ni}^ bondage. 



APPENDIX. IVo 

[From the Pi-edonia Censor of Nov. 18, 1868.] 
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 

We give this week the last of the series of sketches of 
incidents and narratives connected with the workings 
of this institution, written by a venerable conductor of 
the Underground Railroad train. We know that our • 
readers will regret the termination of these interesting 
serial sketches! They were written by our solicitation. 
We had known for several years that the writer had 
large experience in this method of transportation, and 
it was desirable that the incidents of its unwritten his- 
tory should be preserved, so that future generations may 
be more devoutly thankful for the departure of this relic 
of barbarism. To the younger portion of our readers, 
the sketches may appear to be somewhat imaginative. 
It will hardly appear to them to be possible that our 
own county, and particularly the towns along the Lake 
shore, have formerly been hunting ground for slaves. 
Yet such is the humiliating fact. The Underground 
Railroad track lay through our village, and extended 
along the Lake shore to the Niagara River, and termi- 
nated in Canada. Such was the vigilance of the con- 
ductors, that, we are informed, no one was ever taken 
back to slavery from this county while under the care 
of the Underground Railroad Company. The conduc- 
tors of this Road were some of the most noble and self- 
.sacrificing men in the w^orld. Instead of collecting fare 
of their passengers they always paid it themselves. 
Without the fear of the face of clay before their eyes, 
they boldly pursued their calling, regardless of the 
Fugitive Slave Law. The mandates of civil authority 
did not dismay them or make them violate their con- 
sciences by the betrayal of the fugitive. They boldly 
ly proclaimed, by deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice, 
their faith in the higher law, and bade defiance to 
statutes and ordinances when human liberty was at 
stake. 

But this celebrated company is now broken up, and 
its business will never be resuscitated. President Lincoln, 
by proclamation, took away all the transportation, and 
rendered the stock worthless. Gen. Grant and the 
" Bovs in Blue " tore up the track and destroyed the 



174 APPENDIX, 

structure, so that it will never be used again. Its exis- 
tence and accomplishments have passed away, and but 
a small portion of its history will be perpetuated. What 
would appear singular with most companies, the stock- 
holders do not mourn over their loss. 

We know that our readers will thank the conductor 
for his interesting sketches. Faithful as he was in the 
perilous business, we can say that we heartily rejoice 
that his occupation is gone. No more fugitives from 
slavery will ever seek his humane protection and aid, 
and no more slave catchers will ever watch his steps in 
search of the the terror-stricken fugitive for liberty. 

But for the Republican party, our own free soil would 
still be hunting ground for the harrassed fugitive from 
slavery. This very ground would be cursed with the 
tread of hunters for human chattels. Such is what the 
Democratic party would have made our whole country 
to this day and forever. 

The "Lost Cause" is the loss of the power to perpetu- 
ate the vile institution of slavery. Glory be to God that 
Freedom has triumphed, and the sigh of the slave or 
the fugive from slavery shall be no more heard in our 
land forever. Let us rejoice that we live in this day of 
the accomplishment of these great things — that we have 
had an humble part in its accomplishment, even though 
it has been but the dropping of the silent ballot for 
liberty into the ballot box. 

The righteous act which abolished slavery als<» secured 
our national unity. "The Lord of Hosts, mighty in 
battle," fovight for us from the moment that it was de- 
termined that the oppressed sliould go free. Truth and 
justice have prevailed, for which let all the people give 
thanks, and particularly on the coming Thanksgiving 
ctay. 



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